


Death Should Not Have Taken Thee!

by CPU_City



Category: Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 4
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Identity Issues, Post Game, Slow Burn, he's doing his best, identity crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 14:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16161008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CPU_City/pseuds/CPU_City
Summary: After Frey meets an unfortunate end in Rune Prana, the gods, impressed with Frey's valiance, decide to give her a spirit a second go at life. And so the disappearance of one amnesiac brings upon the journey of another... Takes place after the third story arc.





	1. Chapter 1

_"_ _Alas, valiant heroine, Death should not have taken thee! Your heart is strong and noble, and you let it bleed you dry for love."_

_"_ _Ah, but life is not something we simply can just give you back. Such is not the way of the world. The Native Dragon was a rare exception."_

_"_ _But imagine the mortal world without hearts like hers! They are a gift few and far between. Give it back to her."_

_"_ _But her body was destroyed…"_

_"_ _Then make a new one!"  
"It's not that simple."_

_"_ _Then give her heart to someone else!"_

_"_ _Hush, hush! We'll work out something in due time..."_

* * *

Despite being of noble birth, Arthur had never known much about swordplay—or the men and women behind the blades. He had dedicated his time to his work, and what little he did know about combat involved the magical arts. He had never known swordplay could be so interesting—or how fascinating the people behind them could be.

He sat on the counter of the small shop connecting to his home. In the square before him, Forte and Luna were busy with their training sessions everyone had become so accustomed to.

It was an incredible sight. Despite both wielding swords, albeit of drastically different shapes and sizes, the women's fighting styles were not at all identical. The knight strong and methodical, delivering harsh blows with such force that the prince was amazed, albeit unendingly thankful, that his daughter was able to parry them. Luna, on the other hand, focused on speed rather than strength. Her blade's contact with Forte's was almost constant, but the damage it dealt was hardly devastating.

Since her mother had begun her quest to bring back Ventuswill from Rune Prana seven years ago, Luna had deiced to take up swordplay in hopes of one day assisting Frey in her quest. Of course, being only seven years ago seven years ago, Arthur had completely forbid Luna from going anywhere near Leon Karnak, much less Rune Prana. Frey had been equally as reluctant to let her daughter accompany her.

Arthur shifted uncomfortably as he thought of his wife. Every time she returned home from her journey, sometimes weeks after leaving, she was always so haggard. I know I'm getting close, she'd say. Ventuswill will be home with us soon, she'd declare.

But seven years later, Arthur was becoming more than doubtful. When his wife came home too exhausted and beat up to even meet his eyes, it made Arthur wish that she'd focus on living instead of on the dead. He felt guilty for feeling that way, but he felt it all the same.

The two fighters suddenly ceased, and Arthur, tucking his book underneath his arm, began to clap for them. The women, almost unaware of his presence after battling with such focus, acknowledged him—Forte with a polite nod as she sheathed her sword and Luna with an excited jump and smile.

"Did you see, dad? I won today!"

Returning the smile, Arthur ceased clapping as Luna moved closer. "I did. I'm very proud of you, Luna."

"A true knight in the making." Forte commented, prompting a light-hearted laugh from Luna.

"I'm not _that_ good."

Forte cocked an eyebrow and laughed. "Well, you beat me! So you must be."

Luna looked down at her feet, a huge smile still plastered to her face. "Thank you for teaching me, Forte."

"Are you two finished for the morning?"Arthur asked.

They both nodded.

"Oh, good! Would you like to join me somewhere cooler for a little bit? You work so hard."

Luna turned to Forte, who shook her head, "I apologize, but I have plans for the rest of the day."

"Oh, dear. Well, have a nice day!"

With a final nod, Forte made her way to the stairs and was gone, leaving the prince and his daughter standing alone in the square.

Arthur was determined to convince Luna to accompany him, even if she declined his invitation. If he had to be by himself any longer, he felt he might drop dead from the impact of overwhelming loneliness. Frey was gone so often, Arthur was always busy with work, and Luna was a teenager with lessons to learn and mission to accomplish. Arthur almost couldn't remember the last time the three of them had spent time together as a family.

Luna didn't need any convincing, "Sure, I'd love to, Dad."

Luna's eyes lit up like stars as she hopped into place next to Arthur. He laughed, and the two of them followed the same path as Forte until they came to the lake. Still heavily impressed with what he had seen on the battlefield, Arthur began to ask questions about the art of swordplay. Luna answered all of them happily and in great detail, occasionally falling into unrelated stories. Arthur listened carefully, absorbing each and every word like a sponge. It only made him miss Frey more.

When their conversation was interrupted by Luna's growling stomach, Arthur and Luna walked until they came to Porcoline's restaurant. Luna joked casually about how Arthur's work must have been calling to him as the two sat down at the table nearest to the door near Arthur's office. Unsurprisingly, the usually occupied restaurant was full of townspeople and travelers. With a smile, Margaret jumped towards their table and took their order—happy to see Arthur and Luna at the same time—and rushed it to Dylas and Porcoline before quickly returning to the table to chat.

"Hey, guys!" she beamed. "Having a nice day?"

"So far," Arthur smiled, "and you?"

"Busy as usual, but it's nothing the three of us can't handle!" Margaret replied, gesturing towards her coworkers with her arm.

Another customer walked in, and Margaret rushed to serve them. Luna and Arthur two sat in silence for awhile—Luna starring with wide eyes at Dylas as he expertly snatched dishes away from Porcoline and passed them to Margaret. After what seemed, to her, like an eternity, Luna snapped back to attention. She opened her mouth to speak but quickly shut it when she saw that her father had fallen asleep. She giggled and then sat quietly. To see Arthur sleeping was a rare occurrence.

Only moments passed before he was jolted awake as the door slammed open. He attempted to act as if he'd never shut his eyes.

"I don't believe this!" boomed Doug as he stepped into the room with Kiel and a wooly following behind. "How could I lose to… _that_!"

The wooly hurried onward as if the dwarf wasn't pointing at him. Ignoring his shouting, the wooly curled up happily underneath the piano.

Keil also walked past Doug, casually waving a hand as he passed by and made his way to an open table. "Technically, you lost to me too. Fluffy is _my_ monster, after all."

"Shut up!" Doug huffed. "At least that makes sense. You know magic!"

"Weaponry doesn't make the fighter, Doug." Keil laughed. "The fighter makes the weaponry."

"That still doesn't make sense!"

Luna couldn't help herself from intervening. "Oh, Dad and I were having a chat just like that earlier!"

Kiel turned to face Luna. "Really?"

"Oh, yes." Arthur replied, still trying to recover from sleep and doing his best not to focus on how adorable Fluffy looked. He continued with a light laugh. "Luna was telling me about her training sessions with Forte."

The sound of his sister's name lit up Kiel's face. The earlier conversation between father and daughter was revived and the room was soon swarmed towards their table. Each person had something interesting to offer, and the conversation seemed to go on for hours. The sun painted the sky from blue to pink to orange outside, and the moon splattered it black and white. People came and went, and in the end only residents of the town remained.

"I guess a 'little bit' turned into 'all day,' didn't it, Dad?" Luna said.

"I suppose it did." Arthur smiled. "I enjoyed today very much."

"Me too!"

"I second that!" Kiel said, throwing his hand up into the air unnecessarily out of excitement. "But, um, I should probably get home now. Forte should be there any minute now. Her patrol ends around this time."

Doug shook his head and pointed out the window. "I don't think you have to worry about that, man. She's coming this way, and fast."

"What? That's weird." Kiel said as he stood from his chair and leaned over the table to get a better look. "What's she running for?"

Luna narrowed her eyes and snapped up from her seat. "She must have found something wrong during her patrol."

Just as panic began to form in the room, Forte burst through the door.

* * *

Wandering aimlessly didn't seem like such a waste of time when your head was entirely empty. Alone and completely unsure of his whereabouts, a young man walked without direction for what felt like hours. The experience felt surreal—as if he hadn't ever existed until that specific point in time. He saw trees, and he knew that they were trees, but he couldn't help be filled with awe. Of course he'd seen trees before. He _must_ have seen them but by god these _trees_. Somehow they still felt new to him.

He was pretty sure it was weird that he was more impressed by the trees than the giant tower he'd woken up by. He had absolutely no idea why he'd fallen asleep there, but he definitely didn't want to stay after he quickly caught the attention of nearby monsters. Why in the world had he chosen to fall asleep in a place swarming with monsters?

He touched the hilt of his sword in his scabbard, neither of which he remembered the origins of, and assumed he must have been pretty damn awesome when he saw the blade. Of course he wouldn't be afraid of sleeping near monsters with a weapon like this.

Of course, at present, he had no idea how to use it. At least he _thought_ he had no idea how to use it. That was kind of weird too…

He wrinkled his nose and pulled the blade from the scabbard—or at least halfway. Narrowing his eyes, he snorted with a mix of frustration and amusement as he fumbled with the sword, doing his best to free it from his belt.

He hardly expected that all the noise he was making would alert a nearby knight doing her routine patrol. Without so much as a whisper, she emerged from the darkness and expertly unsheathed her blade. The man dropped his efforts in shock and threw his hands up to the stars.

"Halt!" the woman cried, holding her sword only inches away from the man's face. "Who are you, and why are you sneaking around so late?"

Why _had_ he been doing that? And… Oh god, what was his name? What kind of weirdo didn't know his own name?

"Lest!" that was it. That was totally it. His name was Lest…he thought, at least.

The knight narrowed her eyes. "Alright, and what are you doing?"

Lest looked up into the sky, and, after thinking as hard as he could, he answered honestly. "I…can't remember."

Her sword inched closer, and Lest jumped back. "Really?"

"Yes, yes, I swear!"

She eyed him warily for a few more moments before finally sheathing her sword. "Well, alright… Please excuse me, but it is my priority to protect this town."

With a relieved sigh, Lest lowered his arms. "I understand. I guess I did look pretty weird creeping around out here in the dark."

"I'm Forte." the knight said. "Let me take you into town. There's an inn you can stay at."

Lest shook his head. "Oh, thanks! But I don't think I have any money..."

Forte cocked an eyebrow, and Lest quickly peeked into his pockets and the bag on his belt. "Nope. No money."

Forte smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help you once I explain your situation."  
"Well, if you're sure..."

"I am."

Without any further objections, Lest followed Forte into town, stealing only one final glance back at the scenery behind him.

* * *

Before taking him to the inn like she had originally planned, Forte dropped Lest off at the clinic for a medical exam. Relieved that Lest appeared to be completely incompetent with a sword, and thus less intimidating, Forte was still apprehensive about his sudden appearance in Selphia. When she had asked him if he could at least remember where he had come from, he had shrugged and pointed to the dark silhouette of Leon Karnak towering in the distance. The response made Forte stiffen. It was hardly any reason to classify the newcomer as dangerous, but it certainly was an interesting bit of information. Lest claimed he couldn't remember anything before waking up there.

She had been intrigued enough when Frey had come to town with amnesia. Forte had never imagined meeting anyone else with the condition.

The knight's suspicious train of thought crashed when she noticed yet another very non-routine element of her routine patrol. Most people would hardly consider feathers non-routine, but something about the one Forte saw lying in the street struck cord in her heart.

"Is that…?" Sure enough, Forte's suspicions were confirmed when she approached the object. She could recognize it anywhere. There was no mistaking a feather that came from the Native Dragon.

Her eyes widened as she examined the object in her hands—not quite believing what she was seeing. Without thinking about it, she bolted in the direction of the castle. Her mind raced with millions of thoughts at once, but every last one of them crashed and shattered as she saw exactly what she had been hoping too when she reached her destination.

Forte bolted towards Porcoline's restaurant, where she assumed most of the town would beat this hour, and nearly fell flat on the floor when she stormed in. She shouted her message loud enough for people down the street to hear her.

"Ventuswill is back!"


	2. Chapter 2

Before taking him to the inn, Forte insisted that Lest see a doctor first. Lest tried to convince her otherwise, but the knight was determined.

Lest felt terrible when he saw the sleepy expressions of the people who answered the door Forte insisted on slamming her fist upon so loudly, and he only felt worse when exhausted faded to concern as Forte explained Lest's situation. They introduced themselves as Nancy and Jones, resident health professionals of the town, and then gestured to a third character up the stairs. She eyed Lest with hard eyes, and only spoke when prompted by Nancy to introduce herself. The reply, _Dolce,_ came so quietly Lest had to strain his ears to hear it. Dolce quickly excused herself and retreated to bed when Lest once more declared he wasn't in need to medical attention. With a polite nod, Forte excused herself as well.

Lest yawned himself and stretched as Nancy turned from examining him to grab something off the shelf behind her. Afterwards, he slumped back into his seat and sighed. Apparently he had been in perfect condition—save for a few minor scratches—just like he'd tried to tell Forte. Even so, Nancy and Jones both insisted that Lest stay for a little longer while they examined him further—just to make absolutely sure Lest was healthy enough to be released into the world.

Nancy turned back around with a tray of assorted medicines and handed them to Lest one by one—some horrible, earthy tasting liquids, and pills of all shapes and sizes. Slightly wary, Lest was reluctant to down all the medicine at once, but the nurse reassured him they were for the most common magical ailments and ,of course, just to be safe. Although very certain that Lest was fine, it was hard to tell through his exhaustion. Lest supposed that made sense. He wasn't a doctor, anyway.

"You did come from Leon Karnak." Jones said. He jotted something down on a note pad and didn't look up.

"And in the middle of the night! That's dangerous." Nancy added.

"What were you doing, exactly? If I may ask."

Lest shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I can't remember."

"Poor dear…"

Jones looked up from his desk. "You know, there's someone else who lives in town who also has amnesia."

"Really?" Lest asked. That was surprising. He hardly thought of amnesia as something common. Although he supposed two people hardly defined "common", even if they did just so happen to be staying in the same town.

Jones nodded. "She goes to Leon Karnak frequently. She might know something about you."

"That'd be great!" Lest beamed. "Where does she live? I'd like to visit her tomorrow, if that's alright."

"Unfortunately, she hasn't come back from her last trip yet…" Jones added. "She's usually gone for a long while."

"Oh… Well, that's okay, I can wait. It's not like I have anything going on." Lest laughed.

"You know, you actually remind me a lot of her." Nancy said. "You certainly are taking this well."

"Might as well." Lest replied. "I can't let something out of my control bug me."

"That's very wise of you, Lest."

After the conversation and a few more examinations and medications, Lest was deemed clean and allowed to leave. Nancy and Jones offered to lead him to the inn, but he kindly declined their offer. Forte said it was only a little bit up the street. Lest was sure he could find the place himself.

Just as Lest was about to leave, Forte gave him a reason to stay as she threw the door back open, hitting Lest straight in the face. She didn't seem to notice as she loudly relayed her message before anyone had a chance to question her.

"Ventuswill is back!"

Whatever a Ventuswill was, Lest figured it must have been pretty important when everyone, including Dolce, darted for their jackets and zipped down the street. Before leaving, Nancy quickly checked Lest's bleeding face, determined he was alright, and gave him a rag to clean himself up with. Forte, after apologizing, left him standing alone in the clinic.

Practically drowning in curiosity, Lest decided to follow.

* * *

The trees had been impressive, but the entry room to the castle was absolutely breathtaking—from the very top of the open, domed ceiling, to the very bottom of the intricately carved pedestal beneath it. Of course, there was also the dragon that just so happened to be sprawled out on top of the pedestal. She had been sleeping when Lest arrived, but the sudden noise of an entire town flooding into one room had quickly woken her up.

To a man who couldn't even remember his own name about an hour ago, the dragon was grandest thing he had ever seen in the short life of his memory. Lest didn't realize how close he'd gotten to the creature until he briefly made eye contact with her. It made him feel painfully small, and he quickly averted his eyes and moved to his original place in the back crowd. When he looked up again, Ventuswill's attention was direction elsewhere.

The relief was short-lived when Lest noticed he caught the eyes of someone else. A girl, Lest assumed no older than fifteen, standing to his right was staring up at him with curious eyes. Lest stared back down at her, and the girl's gaze seemed to grow more intense.

"Uh, hi." Lest said before the awkwardness of the situation managed to kill him.

Finally, the girl blinked. "Hello. I don't think I know you?"

"No, probably not. I mean—I don't think we know each other either. If I knew you, then I'm pretty sure you'd know me. Unless you just forgot me. Because if we _do_ know each other I totally forgot about it."

The girl went back to staring with wide eyes before speaking again. "Um…"

"Sorry, sorry!" Lest added quickly. "I'm a little…. Flustered, is all."

The girl smiled and nodded as if she and Lest were thinking of the same thing. "I understand. Ventuswill coming back is a huge deal!" her face lit up like the sun as she continued. "It means my mom is on her way back too!"

"Your mom?"

"Yep! She's been working really hard to save Venti."

"Wow…" Lest looked to face the dragon again. "She must be some lady if everyone is making this big a deal."

The girl smiled proudly. "She is!"

"So, what exactly _is_ your name? Since we're working on that 'knowing each other' thing?"

"Oh, Luna." She offered a hand for Lest to shake. He accepted it with a smile.

"Lest."

The two of them spoke casually for a few moments—as casually as an amnesic man and teenage girl could, anyway—before someone came up to Luna. He tapped lightly on her shoulder and bent down to speak to her, as if he didn't want anyone else in the room to hear him.

"Dad!" Luna cried, smiling. "There you are! I lost you in the crowd."

Her father returned the smile, but Luna spoke too quickly for him to continue. She pointed back at Lest. "This is Lest. He's gonna be staying here in town, and he has amnesia like Mom does. Isn't that weird?"

"Really? That's quite interesting. It's very nice to meet you, Lest. I'm Arthur."

Lest wondered if Luna was even aware that Arthur had something to say. Suddenly feeling awkward again, Lest threw up a hand. "Hi."

Luna opened her mouth to speak again, but Arthur squeezed her shoulder. His eyes darkened behind his glasses, and Luna seemed to understand that he had something important to discuss with her. She closed her mouth and let him speak. Lest, although he knew it was horribly inappropriate, strained his ears to hear the exchange.

"Ventuswill has something she's like to tell us in private."

"What is it?"

"I am not sure. She wanted to wait until you were with me."

The pair looked painfully serious. "Alright… Let's go. I'll talk to you later, Lest."

He watched as the pair eased their way through the crowd and made it to the dragon. Lest really wished he wasn't so rudely curious as he continued to stare, feeling his heart sink as he saw Arthur's eyes fall as his daughter seemed to beam with excitement. She placed a hand to the dragon's mouth and shook her head before pointing to the crowd. Both Arthur and Ventuswill seemed to trying to dissuade Luna from whatever decision she'd made, but the girl's voice boomed through the room regardless.

"Venti has news about my mom! Everyone be quiet."

And everyone was.

"Luna…" Ventuswill began her final plea. "I really think this is something you and Arthur need to hear first."

Luna shook her head vehemently. "My mom is important to everyone, not just Dad and I. Everyone deserves to hear. She's done so much for all of us."

The dragon turned to the prince. "What do you think?"

He offered a weak smile. "I suppose she's right."

Ventuswill sighed and held her head high above the crowd. "Very well.

My return here does mean that Frey was successful in her endeavors, but… I currently have no idea of her whereabouts. Rune Prana is full of deadly things, and I wasn't able to see Frey before I returned here…"

"What are you saying?" it was Arthur who asked the question, a small twinge of panic in his voice.

"I mean exactly what I've said. I don't know where Frey is, and Rune Prana is extremely dangerous—even to a strong fighter like Frey.

News that Lest translated as 'Hey, kid, your mom is probably dead.' struck Lest as the type of thing that would send a child into a horrible fit. He imagined how horrible she must have felt—perhaps wishing that she had listened to Ventuswill's wish to give them the news privately. Lest supposed he should have equally expected Luna's actual reaction. She had probably read the statement completely differently.

"Well, let's go and find her!" Luna glanced around the room and smiled when she caught Lest. What she said next, Lest wouldn't have expected even if he'd been told it was happen in advance. "Lest, you can help! I bet you're strong enough to get though Rune Prana."

"Luna…" Arthur cut in. "You've only just met Lest. It's rude to ask him of such a favor."

"But he said he was at Leon Karnak before he came here! He might even know mom."

All eyes were suddenly on Lest.

Luna answered the silently asked question for him. "He has amnesia."

Suddenly, everyone in the room seemed completely taken with the idea of designating him the hero. To them, an amnesic arriving in town with sword in tow who just so happens to show up just when he's useful wasn't as odd as it was to Lest. A similar thing had happened to Frey so many years ago when she had fallen from the sky. Lest's chance arrival in Selphia appeared to be a fated blessing that mirrored the past.

Panicking, he did his best to shoot the idea down. "But I can't even get my sword out of its scabbard! Ask Forte, she saw me trying."

Everyone whipped their heads in Forte's direction. She seemed surprised by the sudden attention. "Well, uh, that is true… But you _were_ in Leon Karnak. It is very likely that you've simply forgotten how to use your weapon. Sane people don't wander into that area without knowing what they're doing."

"Then maybe I'm crazy!"

When everyone turned from Forte to eye Lest, he felt his face grow hot. "Er, or maybe I just forgot how to use the sword."

A large man, Volkanon, as he introduced himself, slapped a hand on Lest's shoulder and let out a hardy laugh. "We're a very trusting town, Lest. We have complete faith that you'll be able to bring our beloved princess back safely."

Lest felt his thoughts blur. He tore himself away from Volkanon's grasp and spun around to face him. His voice rose an octave as he shouted. "P-princess? She's a _princess?_ "

Lest's thoughts flashed back to Luna and Arthur. If Frey was a princess, that had to make those two royals as well. Lest could hardly wrap his thoughts around the idea. He'd been talking to a prince and princess. As those thoughts raced through his head, he began questioning just why exactly he was remembering the things he was. He could remember what nobility meant, but not how to use his own sword? What in the world was that about?

It was Ventuswill who spoke next, "There is something about you that reminds me very much of her."

Well, that certainly explained the awkward eye contact from earlier.

"I like to think of myself as a very good judge of character, Lest. Even if you don't think you're strong, this entire town does, and so do I."

"You all just met me!" the response came out as shout, unintended by Lest, but was well received all the same. "How could you possibly think that?"

Ventuswill laughed. "Because years ago, another amnesic Earthmate saved my life."

Luna's eyes twinkled. "He's an Earthmate too?"

Lest raised his hand, but his comment went unnoticed as he was swarmed with handshakes and introductions from the town residents all eager to meet him. "But I don't even know what that is..."

At that moment, he really wished he had never mentioned coming from the tower.


	3. Chapter 3

Lest dreamt of himself acting out the hero role that Selphia had bestowed upon him. He was clad in armor in a grand throne room before Luna and Arthur as the townspeople stood lined up against the walls. The prince looked regal, while his daughter looked like she had merely been playing dress-up. Her crown sat crooked atop her head and bobbed as she moved, and her cape was so long that the bottom rested on the floor.

But appearance was not important. Lest had a message to deliver.

"Your majesty, the princess has been kidnapped!"

Luna's cheeks puffed up. "And?"

"And, milady?"

"She means what of the hero?" Arthur offered in a polite a town as ever.

"Ah, there is no hero..."

Luna threw her arms to the sky and her cape billowed behind her before being pulled down by the absurdity of its own weight. "Don't be silly, you're the hero!"

Lest was given no opportunity to object before the scene shifted to the battlefield. Lest staggered backwards and drew his sword to fight the hoard of approaching monsters. He nearly dropped it as the mass came together to form a single unit. The giant beast made of millions swung at him, and Lest heard Luna behind him.

"We have faith in you!"

Lest spun on his heel to face the princess and was struck down from behind. He was thrown to the ground hard before the monster raised its giant hand to crush the poor hero.

Lest's mind darkened as the shadow descended upon him. He _knew_ he wasn't strong enough for this…

* * *

"Lest, wake up! It's time to get to work!"

Lest slowly peeled his eyes open and flopped onto his side. Lest had expected something like this would happen, but he hadn't expected that it would happen so soon.

After the hectic events of the night before, he'd been dying to sleep in. "Mmph—wha?"

"Hey! The lady says to wake up."

Lest jolted awake at the sudden sound of a man's voice and fell on to the floor in a tangle of blankets. He struggled to break free but only managed only to get his left arm and head out. As expected, Luna was standing above him looking exasperated. Next to Luna and on the verge of laughter was Leon, a man Lest had only met briefly the night before at the gathering and then encountered again at the inn. As fate would have it, Leon had also taken up residence and worked from there, according to Luna, for several years now.

Lest wondered exactly why Xiao Pai and Lin Fa were willing to give up one of their rooms for so long, but he decided not to question it. Questioning friendliness seemed pointless in this town.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty."

"You think I'm pretty?" Lest mentally slapped himself for the remark the second it came out of his mouth. It sounded honestly curious rather than the sarcastic quip he'd meant it to be.

The reply came so quickly that Lest wondered if Leon spent all day planning comebacks. "Pretty slow. What are you still doing on the ground?"

As Lest unfurled his cotton prison and stood, he couldn't help but wonder if anything Leon had said had been serious. The sly smile plastered to his face was terribly misleading.

As if the man were a mind reader, he answered Lest's question with a laugh. "Calm down, I'm just teasing you. You're making this too easy."

Luna had entirely different priorities. "You slept in your clothes?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I don't have anything else right now." Looking over the pair in front of him, he continued, beginning by pointing at Leon. "Do you always dress like that?"

Leon flashed a toothy smile. "What's wrong with it? Too sexy for you?"

"Uh…"

"Yeah, this is normal."

"…O-kay." Lest shifted his attention to Luna. "And why are you wearing dirty clothes?"

"I was working on the farm." She said flatly, as if Lest were supposed to understand. "I didn't want to change before our training session."

"Uh, why is a princess farming?"

Luna smiled. "With my mom gone so often, someone has to do it. Dad is busy with work, and I'm not sure he's suited for it anyway…"

Lest covered up his sigh with a yawn. Luna hadn't really answered his question.

"Hey, I have an idea!" she exclaimed. "Leon, why don't you take Lest shopping for new clothes later?"

"I don't want to do that." Lest said, quickly eyeing the other man's outfit again. "I still don't have any money."

"Oh, don't worry! I'm sure once you explain—"

"—I don't really want to freeload, either… I can't keep playing the amnesia card to get free stuff. I already feel terrible about using this room."

Luna's face fell— "I see."

—and quickly lit back up again. "I knew you were heroic!"

"I'd hardly call wanting to pay for my own underwear heroic." Lest mumbled. Leon heard him anyway and laughed.

"Same here." He turned his head in Luna's direction. "How about this? You two head off for your lessons, and I'll take care of the clothing situation."

Lest shook his head. "No. No free things."

Leon winked at him—an action that put Lest on edge. "Don't worry, it won't be, hero."

* * *

The training session was agonizing before Lest even touched the hilt of his sword. Luna had taken Lest back to the town square outside the castle to meet Forte, and, unbeknownst to Lest, Forte was very serious about training. She had started Lest and Luna out with what she deemed a "simple" set of one hundred jumping jacks, succeeded by a similar set of sit ups and other warm ups. Luna completed all of these things with an ease that left Lest distraught as he gasped for air. By the time Forte finally instructed her students to draw their weapons, Lest thought he would die.

Noticing this, Forte offered him a short break. Before Forte had been able to finish her sentence, Lest was flat on the ground with the bottle of water that Luna had the sense to bring. All too soon, Forte commanded for Lest to take up his sword and begin his practice match.

In the blink of an eye the princess was upon him. She struck too fast for Lest to register, and he staggered backwards only just in time to avoid being gutted. He felt his body go cold and his hair stand on end as he dropped his sword to the ground and threw his arms in front of him. The sound of metal on stone snapped Luna back to herself.

"How about I take this over, Luna?" Forte offered, although she had already drawn her sword and stepped into place. "You've got to be careful when you're instructing others."

Lest was thankful when Luna sheepishly agreed. He picked his sword up off the ground and gripped it firmly with both hands to mimic Forte —apparently his first mistake.

"You hold short swords with one hand."

Lest dropped his left hand to his side—another error. Forte eased her position and moved closer to Lest to demonstrate her next point.

"No, no, you're too slack. Position yourself for battle. Like so."

Forte shifted into the proper stance as easily as she walked. She held her longsword in both hands diagonally across her chest, bent her knees and placed one foot behind the other. She looked solid, but Lest knew that the knight could come to life with a deadly strike at any time. With a deep breath, he copied her stance save for his hands. He bent his arms and held his weapon close, keeping his free arm tense and hand balled into a fist.

"Very good!" Forte praised. "Now strike!"

Just as Lest had figured, Forte came to life with a strong overhand swing. She lunged forward and brought her sword down hard, ending the swing with a second to the right just before her sword struck stone. Lest could hardly imagine the strength a maneuver like that must have taken.

With an example to live up to, Lest prepared his own attack. He leaned backwards as he swung the blade up over his shoulder before quickly lunging forward and completely the action. When the blade was parallel with the ground, he again leaned into his strike and spun in a full circle, planting his feet firmly on the ground when he came to a stop.

"Very, _very_ good." Forte said. "How did you know to do that?"

Lest blinked. "I… don't know. It just felt right, once I got into it."

Forte's expression hardened. "It seems that you do have some experience hiding in your memories somewhere."

"I knew it!" Luna exclaimed cheerily from the sidelines. "We just have to help him remember."

"Well, then there's no better way than to take him right where the action is!"

"…And where is that?" Lest asked, already dreading what was to come.

"For now, we can start with the outskirts of Selphia. The monsters there are weak, and I'm sure you'll be able to handle them even if your memories don't return right away."

Luna and Lest responded in unison. "What?"

"It was months before you let me go fight monsters!" Luna pouted. "Why does Lest get to go so soon?"

"Lest is an adult with prior experience…or so we believe. You were a young child with none, Luna. This is only to test Lest's memories."

Luna groaned audibly, and Lest did the same. "I'm not sure that this is a good idea."

"Of course it is." Forte smiled. "And besides, you'll be fine with Luna and I by your side. I swear on my honor as a knight, no harm shall befall you!"

As he thought back to his dream from that morning, the remark didn't help Lest feel any better.


	4. Chapter 4

If the monsters they were supposed to encounter didn't kill him, Lest was sure that Forte's training sessions would. They'd only moved just outside the stone walls before the knight had stopped them and began lecturing Lest on the what's and the where's and the why's and the how's of monsters. He did his best to focus but quickly lost interest as Forte began taking about the mysterious inner workings of Gates and the Forest of Beginnings.

It did stir up new thoughts in his head though. He raised his hand as Forte's speech came to a close.

"Yes, Lest?"

"Maybe we should try testing to see if I have any skill with magic?"

Forte eyed him and then fell deep in thought. "I hadn't thought of that. It seems worth a try. I don't know much about the subject personally, but my brother has been studying it for years."

Lest gestured back to town with a quick point behind him. "Should I go get him?"

Forte shook her head. "I'd prefer if you didn't. Not right now, anyway."

Lest thought to question the decision but decided against it when Luna took the initiative and prepared to march onward. The group formed a line with Forte—who looked as if she were preparing for battle with beasts greater than she suggested—in the front and Lest—sword slack in his hand—in the back. Lest was thankful for his position, as it finally gave him some reprieve from Forte's stern instruction. She had a good heart, he knew, but wasn't sure that he could take this on a regular basis. He wondered if he'd ever met anyone else so serious and dedicated to their craft before.

As Lest followed closely behind his instructors, he started taking notice of the trees again. He recognized the scenery from last night and had to admit that it was remarkably more impressive in the daylight. He had yet to see a calendar, and, oddly enough, it hadn't even occurred to him to ask anyone the date. As Lest's companions fell out of focus and the foliage became clear in his mind, he guessed it was probably about mid-Summer. The air was hot, but not unbearable for early morning. The grass crunched underneath his feet, horrendously dry and slowly yellowing from lack of rain. The same was true of the leaves above, still green, but slowly beginning their colorful transition for the quickly approaching Fall.

"Hey, what's the date?" Lest asked, still not fully attentive to the rest party.

Luna and Forte answered in unison. "Summer Eighteenth."

Lest smiled. _Awesome_.

Luna glanced over her shoulder. "No one had told you yet? Gods…This must be really confusing for you."

"It's not too bad." Lest really hoped that you couldn't be punished for lying to a princess. As the exchange sunk in, he wondered why he'd even lied in the first place. He'd been given a possible chance to get out of this situation, and he'd turned it down.

He guessed that he was just a good person. Apparently his heart remembered more than his brain did… But who _guessed_ that they were a good person? That was probably something that most actually knew about themselves. As his empty mind buzzed to life with confusion, he forgot about the scenery entirely. He was overwhelmed again.

He heard a sound, but didn't register that it was important until he bumped into Luna. She'd stopped walking. When did that happen?

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something's in the bushes. Prepare yourself."

Posed to battle, Lest lost all sense of time. Logically, he assumed it had only been a few moments, but it felt like an eternity as the trio waited for whatever it was to emerge from the rustling bush. Forte crept closer, ready to strike at any moment.

A large, red object rolled out from the bush, and everyone jumped back. Forte rose her sword above her head but didn't strike. A look Lest couldn't read spread across the knight's face, and she turned back to the bush, moving the foliage aside with her sword.

With only a quick warning, Forte vanished off the path. "I'll be right back. I think I saw something else back there. Take care, alright?"

"What's that?" Lest asked, approaching the creature.

"A Pomme Pomme. It's a type of monster." Luna seemed uninterested but offered a smile regardless. "My dad loves them."

"Do you eat them?" Lest asked. He took a step closer and bent down to get a better look at the monster.

"What? No!" Luna cried, suddenly very attentive. "That's terrible."

"Are you sure?" he extended a hand to poke the Pomme Pomme. It went deadly still. "Because they look like apples with faces."

"That's basically what they are…"

"But you don't eat them?"

"Lest, I don't think you should be touching it like that."

"This thing? Ah, come on, it's got to be totally _—_ "

He'd planned to finished that sentence with "harmless," but his plans quickly changed as the Pomme Pomme tucked in its head and rolled into Lest's legs, knocking him onto his knees. Already too low to the ground to stop the fall with his hands, he fell face first into the grass. The monster, seemingly proud of its triumph over the Earthmate, poked its head back out and began bumping its head against Lest's thigh.

And so his sentence instead ended with profanity that Lest was thankful the grass muffled enough for Luna to miss.

Luna burst into hysterical laughter. "I told you!"

Lest flopped onto his back and let the Pomme Pomme roll on top of him. He smiled and pat the top of its head. It was really hard to stay mad at that face… "That you did."

"By the way…" Lest began. "Isn't it weird that Forte left us here? I mean, I don't know her very well, but that seems… off."

Luna's face fell. "She probably thinks whatever she saw is too dangerous for us. I can beat her in a fight, but she still treats me like a little kid…"

Lest frowned. The look on Luna's face nearly killed him. "Hey, cheer up. She probably left you behind to watch me."

"She said you had potential."

Lest chuckled and lifted the Pomme Pomme above him. "Yeah, and she took me out to train against… _these_ things."

Luna smiled back and abandoned. "I think that one likes you. Maybe you could keep it."

"Eh, I don't think Lin Fa would like that very much. Besides, I don't know what these guys would even eat. It's not fruit, is it?"

She completely ignored the second half of his question. "I don't think a Pomme Pomme would bother Lin Fa. She's had some… interesting pets."

"She has?" He brought the monster back down to his chest and began petting it again.

"Why are you on the ground?" Forte asked as she reemerged from the bushes. Her stance relaxed when she saw the scene before her, but she quickly looked away. "I see."

Lest didn't move from his place in the grass and continued to pat the Pomme Pomme. He felt lost in his own world, and Forte's voice was the only thing tethering him to reality. He turned his head in her direction as she spoke. "Well, I didn't find anything suspicious, but that doesn't mean we're in the clear. We should all be careful."

"Just what do you think you saw?" Lest said. Keeping his eyes locked on Forte. "You said yourself the monsters were weak here. Why should we worry?"

He stopped petting the Pomme Pomme while he waited for a response, and the creature nudged up against his hand. As hard as he tried to keep his expression serious, a smile broke across Lest's lips. He heard Luna laugh, but Forte didn't seem amused. She looked away again.

"I-it's that kind of attitude that gets people killed. You should always be on guard!" She sighed and then turned to face Lest again. "We can never be too careful. I don't want you two to get hurt."

Lest could read Luna's expression like an open book. _I can beat her in a fight, but she still treats me like a little kid…_ He hadn't wanted to say it earlier, and he still didn't, but he completely understood what Forte was saying. Luna _was_ still young, and nature was unpredictable. She may have been strong and brave, but that didn't make her invincible.

He decided to stand back up before Luna caught him starring and placed the Pomme Pomme gently on the ground. When the monster didn't move, Lest gave it a light nudge with his foot. The Pomme Pomme remained anchored in place.

"Go on. Go live life."

The monster starred back up at Lest for a few moments before it rolled a short distance away. It stopped and continued to stare.

Lest couldn't help laughing. "Farther."

Once the monster disappeared back into the bushes, Forte lined the group back up and they continued their trip. The short walk them down a path speckled with mushrooms both small and large. It seemed painfully ordinary to Luna and Forte, but Lest was still enthralled as usual. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of the mushrooms moving. Wait _—moving_? Was that right? He stopped in his tracks, attracting the attention of the rest of the line.

"What are those?" Lest asked. "They're moving... I think."

"Big Mucks." Forte answered. "Try to keep away if you can. They're usually docile if you keep your space, but they _are_ poisonous."

Unconsciously, Lest took a step backwards. The group continued onward until they came to a small clearing seemingly free of the Mucks.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Lest asked. "Why not fight those back there? Even though they are poisonous… Oh, wait! Are we looking for a Gate?"

His train of thought crashed when he bumped into Luna for the second time that day. What had they stopped for this time?

Lest felt his heart leap into his throat when his eyes fell on the reason. "Holy fu—"

"—What is _that?"_ Luna cried.

"I-I don't know." Forte drew her sword and leapt backwards. "Be ready!"

Admittedly, the giant mushroom-creature before them didn't come off as very threatening when Lest looked it over. It eyed the group from afar with wide eyes and a friendly smile and bounced up and down in the clearing. Nonetheless, he drew his sword. The sheer size of the beast was enough to keep terror welled in his chest. First Big Mucks, and now this bigger Big Muck…

Lest took a small step forward, and the monster came bounding towards him. He barely heard Luna and Forte shouting for him to watch out over the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears. Without thinking, he bolted to his right, just barely escaping being crushed. He whipped back around and took another step back for good nature while the rest of the party rushed to his side. The gathering quickly dispersed—without Lest—as the mushroom turned back around and Forte shouted more warnings Lest heard nothing of. It didn't look like it was preparing to strike —

 _—"_ _but they_ are _poisonous."_

Whether it was panic, instinct, fear, or bravery that caused him to jump forward and slash his blade across the face of the beast, Lest wasn't sure he'd ever be able to pinpoint the cause. The creature screeched and screwed its eyes shut tight, tumbling backwards in shock from the blow. Lest hesitated, waiting to see what the creature would do next and feeling slightly more at ease as the creature seemed to shrink in on itself in defeat. Forte shouted at him.

_—"_ _poisonous."_

He could have sworn he felt Forte's fingers brush up against him as he darted forward. He figured she's meant to pull him back. He might have been a complete idiot when it came to battle. The earlier instance of brilliance might have just been dumb luck. As he gripped his sword with both hands again, all doubts faded from his mind.

There was nothing to worry about. He knew what he was doing. He'd been fighting for years, after all.

Lest drove his blade straight between the eyes of the creature. It shrieked again, trying to slap away the attacker with its too-short arms, and Lest removed his sword—opening the wound that dripped something Lest could only assume was the fungus' monsters version of blood. Before the monster could retaliate, Lest lifted his arms to strike again, but was stopped but Forte.

"It's done."

And, as if on cue, the creature toppled over, condensing into light and zipping up into the sky before Lest had fully registered what had occurred.

"How did you do that?" Luna asked, her voice coated in awe as she jumped to the spot where the monster had stood only moments ago. "That was amazing!"

"I remembered how to fight."

* * *

As Luna pointed out gleefully as they began their return home, the Pomme Pomme was waiting for Lest just outside the town entrance. Lest shook his head, insisting that it must have been a different one, but he somehow he knew it was the same one from earlier.

"Name it!" she smiled.

"No. If I name it, it'll think I want to keep it."

"Aw, Lest, that's mean!"

"Well I don't! Seriously, I'm living in someone else's room. I can't bring a pet back—especially not without asking."

"Fine. Then I'll go ask if it's okay!"

Before Lest could come anywhere close to stopping Luna, she took off into town.

"Jeez…" Lest grumbled. "I think she missed my point. I still don't know how to take care of it. I don't even know if I know how to take care of myself!"

The second half of his comment had been a joke, but Forte took is completely seriously.

"Lest, if you ever need help with anything, I shall do my best to assist you. It's very important to me that everyone in town is safe."

Lest wasn't sure how to tell her that he'd been kidding. He decided not to. "Thank you very much, Forte. That means a lot."

"And Lest." Forte continued. "Just what were you about to say before you attacked that monster?"

Lest smiled. "I was going to say 'holy fungus'. I swear it."

Much to his surprise, Forte laughed. "If you say so."


	5. Chapter 5

Work was slow for Arthur that day. The absence of clients gave him time to finish up some paperwork, and his completion of that gave him some time to reorganize his office. Granted, Arthur always kept his office organized, so reorganization was hardly any task at all. Every moment he wished that someone would walk in and give him something to do—even if it was just a quick purchase. Without anything to do, Arthur had too much time to think about things he'd rather not.

Summer Eighteenth, and his wife was absent.

The day before the Firefly Festival, and his wife as absent.

He twiddled his thumbs at his desk and stared straight ahead at the door. Frey had never missed anything like this before. Even when her eyes were empty from exhaustion, she still managed to get back home and spend time with her family during festivals. Things like that were important to her, and they were equally as important to Arthur. He wondered if Luna would be alright…

Arthur removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his left hand, leaning against the right. Ventuswill hadn't done much to ease his concerns. She hadn't declared Frey dead, but she also hadn't completely convinced Arthur that Frey was alive.

It was as simple as casting an escape spell. If she was able to, why wouldn't she have done it?

He prayed that perhaps Rune Prana could block that sort of magic—but she'd always been able to do it before.

He hoped that maybe he was just over thinking things. No one else seemed to be concerned—completely believing that Lest would bring back Frey as if it were no more complicated than picking up bread from the store.

But they believed these things because he reminded them all so much of Frey.

Arthur returned his glasses to their rightful place and stood from his desk. Lest reminded him _terribly_ of Frey.

And he _had_ been at Leon Karnak. It couldn't have been a simple coincidence.

Luna's words rung loud and clear in his head. " _He might even know mom."_

For the first time that he could recall, Arthur left work early.

* * *

Lest had honestly expected Lin Fa to gently let Luna down with a "no" and send her back to inform Lest of the situation. He never would have guessed that Lin Fa would be so completely taken with the idea that she'd rush back with the princess to see the monster herself and then demand Lest name the poor dear.

He spent an entire half-second using every uncreative bone in his body to bestow the name Pomme upon the beast, which Lin Fa and Luna seemed to be pleased enough with to allow Lest to return home.

His room cluttered with clothes strewn all over the floor also wasn't something Lest expected . To Lest, it was a confusing mess. To Pomme, it was a beautiful land of fun things to roll around it. To Leon, it was absolutely hilarious.

He slapped a hand on Lest's shoulder and leaned on the shorter man. "See? Told you I'd take care of it."

"Uh, where did you even get these?" Lest asked.

"All over town. Turns out almost everyone had clothes they were willing to part with—especially once they found out it was for you."

"I said I didn't want to freeload…"

"And I said not to worry about that."

Lest took a large step into the room and turned to face Leon. This guy was really starting to creep him out. "Which means…?"

Leon's smile dropped into a stern look. Oddly enough, Lest found it more comforting than the grin he'd worn before. "I was hoping you could answer a few questions? There's something about you that's been bothering me."

About him? Well, that was certainly honest. "So you want me to pay you back in information?"

"Yep."

"Uh, I can try, I guess…"

Leon closed the door behind him. Suddenly, Lest uneasy.

He began speaking the second the door clicked shut. "You do realize how strange you're arrival here is, right?"

Lest blinked. He couldn't think of a response before Leon continued.

"Ventuswill had been gone for seven years. Frey worked almost endlessly for all that time trying to bring her back…and then you show up." Leon snapped the fan in his hand shut and crossed his arms—deep in thought. "Forte said she found you wandering around on her patrol, and then found Ventuswill back at the castle right after that. Ventuswill says she hasn't seen Frey."

Lest mumbled his response. "I'll admit that's an interesting coincidence."

"That's just it—have you wondered if maybe it wasn't?"

That thought hadn't even crossed his mind. "What do you mean?"

"What if it was _you_ who saved Ventuswill?"

"I think she would have mentioned that… and I think I _'d_ remember something like that."

The wit and grin quickly returned. "Yeah, well _I_ think amnesia would sort of get in the way of that. Y'know, maybe."

"I—er… well, didn't she say specifically say that Frey was the one who saved her?"

"Nope."

"I'm pretty sure I remember her saying Frey. _Frey_ was successful."

Leon sighed. "An educated guess. She also said she never saw Frey. I went to talk to her about it this morning—she didn't see anyone at all."

"I'm not sure I follow." Lest said. "How could she not have seen the person who saved her?"

"The Forest of Beginnings is an interesting place."

Lest frowned. After listening to Forte do so about training exercises and monsters all morning, he half-expected Leon to carry on with a long and convoluted elaboration—he half _wished_ for Leon to do that. Instead, he only opened his fan back up and stared at Lest staring him.

It was Lest who broke the silence. "So, wait… I didn't even really answer any questions. You just gave me a lot to think about."

"I guess I did." Leon laughed. "But don't worry about the debt. The laughs I got out of this were good enough for me."

"O..kay." Lest said, offering a painfully awkward laugh in return. "So why'd you close the door to tell me all of this? It doesn't really seem like something all that secret?"

He smiled. "To freak you out."

Lest carried on as if he hadn't heard the response and began to think about the scenario presented to him. He'd been in the right location—apparently a location only people who knew what they wanted went there for, and he'd been there at exactly the right time for the story to make sense. The only problem seemed to be that he couldn't actually remember anything.

Meanwhile, Pomme had rolled itself into a ball of pajamas and cruised blindly around the room until it hit Lest for the second time that day. He stumbled forward from the light blow and lost his footing entirely as Pomme continued rolling. He had absolutely no idea how it happened, but, in a grand total of five seconds, Lest wound up face first in the now unrolled pile of clothes with Pomme on top of him. Lest could already imagine the look on Leon's face without having to look up.

"And also to suggest that you and I go to Leon Karnak without anyone trying to tag along."

Leon offered Lest a hand to help him up. His expression was exactly as Lest had imagined it. As he accepted the offer of help and got back on his feet, Lest couldn't help but ask what he felt was an obvious question.

"Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Just to see if we can jog your memory, pick up a few groceries, maybe rescues a damsel in distress while we're at it.

"...Right." Lest began, patting imaginary dust off of his clothes. "So, Leon. What about the fact that Frey and I are apparently both amnesic Earthmates? What role do you think that plays in this?"

Leon smiled and bent down to now assist Pomme —who had managed to wiggle its head into a pair of pants. "See, now _there's_ your interesting coincidence."

* * *

"Dad, you're never gonna guess what Lest —"

That was weird. Arthur wasn't in his office. Luna's face fell as she pondered the anomaly. As the idea of a groundbreaking revolution crossed her mind, she sprung back to life and burst through the door leading to the restaurant side of the building. If he wasn't in his office working, that meant someone had convinced him to move over to the restaurant and work. Maybe he was actually even taking a break. The idea made Luna's heart sing.

"Dad, guess what —"

But Arthur was nowhere to be found. Luna stood in the doorway, suddenly unsure of what to do.

Margaret took notice immediately. "Arthur's not in his office?"

Luna shook her head.

Margaret's eyebrows furrowed. "That's odd. He didn't say anything about leaving. Have you checked upstairs yet?"

Luna shook her head again and silently bolted across the room to the staircase, only to find absolutely no one on the upper floor. She skipped steps as she rushed across the hall and down the stairs back to her father's office. He still wasn't there. Luna ran back into the restaurant in a panic.

"I don't know where Dad is."

She almost couldn't control her own thoughts. With Frey so frequently gone on adventures, Arthur was all she had. She'd always known where he was. She'd had his unwavering schedule memorized for as long as she could remember. Luna knew that he wouldn't just leave work without telling anyone unless something had happened. Where exactly he would go, Luna could not even begin to fathom.

It was Margaret who replied, although she sounded unsure. "He's probably out with a client."

"But he always tells you guys!"

"Maybe…it was urgent and he didn't have time?"

Luna felt horribly helpless and stupid. "But…"

Despite her own growing concern, Margaret placed a hand on top of Luna's head and offered up a reassuring smile. "How about we help you look for him?"

Dylas instantly set down everything he'd been doing. "Fine with me."

Porcoline did the same. "A fabulous idea! Let's hurry-scurry on out of here and find our beloved prince!"

* * *

The inn's lobby was crowded with merchants and clients. Some people gathered for fish, some for jewels, and others just to get their shot at the bathhouse. As expected, both Lin fa and Xiao Pai were working furiously to attend everyone's needs. Lest and Leon descended the staircase and added to the swarm of people. They stuck out like oranges on an apple tree, and Arthur spotted them immediately. Of course, Arthur was just as noticeable to them. Leon cocked an eyebrow and raised his fan above the crowd, stepping back up a few steps of stairs. Lest looked up at him, not quite realizing what was happening until the prince approached the two of them.

Arthur offered a polite nod as he acknowledged each of them. "Good afternoon Leon. Lest."

"Afternoon." Leon replied. "Kind of weird to see you out and about. What's up?"

"I was hoping I could have a word with Lest, if you two aren't busy?"

"To me?" Lest asked. Why would the prince want to talk to him?

Oh, right. He was supposed to be saving his wife…

Leon didn't miss a beat. He stood on his toes and pretended to scan the crowd. "Well, I don't see any other Lests around here, buddy. Guess he does mean you."

Lest looked at Arthur and then quickly back at Leon. Both men were smiling. "Um, so, are we busy?"

"What? Us? Nah. Not so much that we can't spare a minute for the prince."

"Is it alright if we speak privately?"

 _Oh crap_. Lest's heart dropped to his stomach. "No problem!"

The silent walk back upstairs felt like it took a millennium. When the pair came to Lest's room, Arthur shut the door behind him. Oh gods, was everybody going to do that? Lest shifted uncomfortably, waiting for the prince to say whatever it was he had in mind.

But he didn't say anything. Not for what felt like _two_ millennia. When he finally did, it opened with a somber laugh. "I'm sorry, I had everything I wanted to say in my head, and now I can't bring myself to say any of it."

Lest relaxed a little. "Oh."

Arthur inhaled deeply and met Lest's eyes. Lest tensed back up again. "I would like to talk to you about Frey."

 _Damn._ "Right, of course."

The silence resumed, and Arthur glanced away.

Lest spoke. "Everyone is pretty confident that I'll be able to save her, sir."

"Yes, I know… and just Arthur is fine. Are _you_ confident in yourself though, Lest? You've been asked to undertake a very serious job. Its… very important to me."

The dread only grew worse. Lest choked on every word he tried to speak and had to settle for nodding. The response didn't seem to do much for Arthur, but the prince smiled and turned to leave nonetheless. "Alright. Thank you very much for your time, Lest."

Before either one of them could make it to the door, it flew open and let in four guests.

"Lest, we need help! We can't find —" Luna's shouting ceased instantly when her eyes shifted from Lest to her father. She rushed in his direction. "There you are!"

Margaret crossed her arms. "We were worried about you!"

Dylas and Porcoline mimicked her actions—although the latter was noticeably more dramatic about it. Leon popped in behind them, and shrugged when Lest mouthed his question. _What's happening?_

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make anyone worry…"

Luna huffed, seemingly over her initial panic. "You have to tell someone when you leave work then! You can't just vanish."

The pang of realization that hit Lest was almost unbearable, but the words Arthur spoke as everyone walked out the door stopped Lest dead in his tracks. They formed a perfectly normal sentence, but it weighed Lest down like a million bricked.

"I'm glad that Luna trusts you."

If the sudden disappearance of her father left Luna in such a panic, he couldn't even begin to fathom how she'd react if Lest couldn't bring back Frey.

Back in his office, guilt slowly overtook Arthur. He mentally chided himself. He'd caused all that panic, and he hadn't even managed to say what he wanted to. New concerns began forming on top of his old ones. What was it about Lest that made Luna run to him when she thought something was wrong? Why not Forte? Why this questionable _stranger_?

The questionable stranger who _must_ have had something to do with his wife.

Arthur greeted his first customer of the day with a smile and temporarily stored his worries in the back of his mind. _Thank the gods._


	6. Chapter 6

The first half of the walk to Leon Karnak was painfully quiet and boring—aside from a few monsters Lest and Leon cut down with ease. Lest, although as selfish and stupid as he knew the idea was, had asked if the quest could be done tomorrow, when things were less hectic. As expected, Leon shot the idea down. He declared that there had been room in the schedule for only one interruption, and Arthur and friends had provided said interruption.

Apparently Leon also had a date tomorrow. So the answer was an absolute no topped off with a second absolute no.

Lest figured that tomorrow he could visit Kiel and discuss possible magic lessons. Leon shook his head and casually tapped the end of his spear. Apparently Kiel had a date tomorrow too.

Lest couldn't help himself. "Is it with you?"

Leon whacked Lest playfully with his fan. "Almost."

"Eh?"

Leon ignored Lest's inquiry. "Lots of people have dates tomorrow. It's the Firefly Festival."

"So… it's a romantic festival?"

"Yep. Sorry, but you'll probably be sitting this one out."

Lest laughed and dropped the subject. It was hardly important—especially not to him. At least it gave him tomorrow to sit down and think about the myriad of things that had happened to him in the short span of time he could actually recall.

The grass transitioned to dirt beneath Lest's feet before giving way to stone. He noticed the sound of his boots clicking against the ground matched up evenly with the slight snap of Leon's sandals—then he realized that was a stupid thing to notice and gripped the hilt of his sword until his knuckles were white. Once a far off silhouette on the horizon, the great tower now stood only feet away. Lest looked up, craning his neck to see the top, and nearly fell over when dizziness washed over him.

"We're going to climb this?" Lest asked, his voice quiet and airy in awe.

Leon looked back at him over his shoulder. "The plan was to go down, but we might have to go up first to get the door open…"

Lest blinked. "Down?"

"Yep. Leon Karnak goes up. Rune Prana goes down. Or so Frey has told me."

The dizzy feeling briefly reclaimed Lest as he processed the information. The tower rose up into the sky _and_ sunk down into the earth below? He wasn't sure what to make of it, so all he could do was stand and stare at the structure with his mouth agape like a moron. Surprisingly enough to Lest, Leon made no comment. Instead, the fox-eared man touched the door of the tower. If he was making an attempt to open it, Lest wouldn't have been able to guess it.

"Damn." Leon hissed. "I thought we'd be fine. I guess we do have to go up."

Lest was ripped from his state of awe and moved closer to Leon, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Maybe we should both try to open it?"

Leon shook his head. "It's not that kind of door. You need permission to open it."

"From who?"

Without looking, Leon pointed upwards. It took Lest a moment to realize Leon was referring to the top of the tower rather than the sky. With a heavy sigh, Lest crossed his arms and leaned up against the door.

Or that was what he'd meant to do, anyway—before it dissolved into nothingness upon contact. For what felt like the hundredth time that day, Lest was unable to catch his balance as he fell. The solid smack of stone hit him harder than embarrassment. He certainly did have a talent for falling down… Perhaps, he wondered, that was the reason he'd lost his memory. Maybe he fell off of Leon Karnak.

No. That was stupid. He'd be dead if that happened. How was that —

"Well, would you look at that!" Leon spoke with a strange mix of shock and humor. "I think this proves me right enough."

Lest jumped to his feet. "About what, exactly?"

"You saving Ventuswill. If you had permission to enter Rune Prana…"

"So I've been here before then?"

Leon nodded.

Lest smiled. Then he twisted his face in confusion. And he frowned. "Wait. You didn't think to have me open the door? We were just going to climb all the way up the tower for no reason?"

The fox ears twitched. "Guess so. Totally escaped my mind just now."

Lest groaned, but Leon ignored the sound. He took his spear in both hands and held it in front of him, positioned to kill at any time it struck him fancy. "Be ready."

* * *

He'd built up such high expectations in his head, and reality certainly didn't meet them. Lest had imagined an intricately designed interior of silver and gold straight out of a storybook, but the inside of the tower was so underwhelming Lest was almost heartbroken. The air was stagnant and musty and plagued with strange noises, and the green stone on green stone color scheme of things was hardly pleasing to look at.

He prayed silently that whatever was making those grumbling noises down the corridor also did not meet his expectations.

Lest drew his sword and walked close to Leon, choosing to focus once again on the rhythmic tapping of their shoes as they ventured deeper into the tower.

_Click. Clack._

_Click. Clack._

_Click. Clack._

_…_

"Why'd you stop?"

Leon gestured forward with a quick nod. Lest's eyes shot down the hall, and he sucked a breath so fast it made his chest hurt. He'd only caught a brief glimpse of the creature before it skulked back behind the corner, but it was large, and that was reason enough to the pair to hesitate before slowly continuing down the way.

When they stepped out of the hall and into the larger room, they found themselves faced with a towering dragon. Lest breathed a slight sigh of relief that it wasn't the horrible beast he'd been imagining and smiled. He remembered fighting dragons.

His smile broadened. He remembered fighting _lots_ of dragons—

—But now wasn't the time to think about that.

The green dragon before them threw back its head. Lest and Leon jumped in opposite directions, but they both charged forward as storm of fire escaped the dragon's mouth. Lest tilted his body right and then up as he prepared his swing. Leon twisted his body completely and jerked the spear backwards, sidestepping into the blow. As Leon's weapon stuck the beast, it lost interest in Lest, giving him a perfect opening to lay his blade deep into the monster's chest.

Leon's eyes shifted and he bolted behind Lest, leaping after something the Earthmate hadn't noticed. The dragon tore away and snapped at Lest with its jaws. He reacted just swiftly enough to narrowly miss the dragon's teeth digging into the flesh of his arm. He jumped back and lunged forward, plunging his blade deeper into the wound he'd already made. As the beast collapsed and burst into a blinding flash of light, Lest ran after Leon, ready to tackle whatever it was he'd gone after.

But it was just a gate, and Leon had destroyed it by the time Lest returned to his side. With a quick glance at each other, the pair continued onward.

Lest picked up his earlier thoughts as the pathway was deemed clear. Images of types of dragons he still couldn't quite recall the names of flooded into his mind—as well as the scenery he'd encountered them in. He recalled slaying a great fire-breather and seeing snow off in the distance, and then he remembered fighting a water dragon in that same exact snow. Scenes played out high above the clouds and he recognized the stone exterior of Leon Karnak.

He wondered where some of these places were and decided that he'd ask around town later on. Someone was bound to know.

He wracked his brain trying to remember more and mentally swore when his efforts proved useless. It was painfully frustrating. He wished he could remember something that wasn't related to combat. Why had he come here in the first place? Did he have friends or family? Was anyone looking for him? There had to be somebody. For all he knew he could have been world class chef who just murdered things for fun.

Gods… maybe he was some kind of horrible monster.

Lest shook the thought from his mind. If he was, someone in town certainly would have recognized him. Arthur's words crept back into his head. _"_ _I'm glad that Luna trusts you."_

And then he remembered something that didn't quite sit right. He was in the sky—higher than Leon Karnak, even—standing before Ventuswill.

He'd known Ventuswill?

No. She hadn't said anything about it.

But he couldn't be remembering things if they didn't happen. His heart raced in his chest.

"Leon—"

" —I saw it."

Lest blinked. He had no idea what Leon was talking about.

Lest was struck clean off of his feet by something he couldn't see. It knocked the wind from his lungs, and Lest struggled to reclaim it as he tumbled backwards and smacked his head against the stone wall. He jerked forwards to retaliate, but the searing pain in his head clawed at his vision and held him back. The monster turned into a whir of colors and sounds as Lest staggered back against the wall. Whatever manner of creature had attacked him was a mystery, but it even bigger than the dragon from earlier. _Much_ bigger.

Leon ducked low and lurched forward before striking upwards. His spear impaled what Lest guessed was the monster's neck and the creature let out a wild howl that echoed across the room. It whipped its head away and the whirl of colors vanished, pulling Leon along for a few steps before he could rip his spear out of the monster. Instead of striking a second time, Leon grabbed Lest by the wrist and pulled him aside.

He was shouting, but Lest could barely hear him. Leon shoved his hand into his pocket and touched whatever he'd grabbed to the back of Lest's bleeding head. It stung, but Lest barely registered the fact. "Lest! Focus, stay with me."

Lest opened his mouth to respond, but he fell forwards onto Leon before he could say anything. It was as if the weight of the mighty tower suddenly threw itself on Lest's shoulders as his legs gave way beneath him. Leon caught him by the belt as he slipped, struggling to hold both his weapon and the quickly fading Earthmate while also keeping an eye on the monster as the flashed back into existence. If Lest could have seen Leon's expression—ears pinned back and a scowl all teeth—he would have described it at feral.

With a weak laugh, Leon wrapped his free arm underneath Lest's and hoisted him upwards. "I don't know how you do it, Frey."

He'd meant to cast an escape spell, but the monster had entirely different plans. It managed to close the distance between itself on Leon in the blink of an eye. If Leon hadn't ducked, the creature might have taken his head clean off his shoulders.

And then it disappeared again. Damn lizard.

In his crouched position Leon was able to get a better grip on Lest. He transferred his weapon to his other hand and threw the Earthmate over his shoulder. He took off before even bothering to completely stand again, almost losing his balance as he tripped over the unseen monster. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Leon jammed the spear into the beast, hoping that just maybe he'd hit something vital.

He didn't look behind to check. As he'd planned to do earlier, he cast an escape spell that whisked him and Lest back to the door of the tower and then a second that took them back to the entrance of town. He stopped only long enough to adjust his hold on Lest, and then he was off in the direction of the clinic.


	7. Chapter 7

The smell of his own blood overtook him as his body was crushed underneath the overwhelming weight of his own failure. If there was air, Lest could not breathe it, and if there was light, Lest was so plunged into darkness that he had absolutely no hope of ever seeing it. Off in the distance, he could hear people frantically calling his name, but no sound came to him as he tried to shout back.

And then, as though someone had ripped Lest from the bottom of the ocean and tossed him on the beach like trash, the darkness was gone. The transition left him woozy. So much so he wasn't sure what he was looking up at or where he was until he let his throbbing head roll sideways to rest on the stone floor.

Dread rose up in Lest's throat and forced out whatever had been keeping him silent. A much-too-long-red-cape had fallen into his vision, nearly blending in with the blood Lest realized he was sprawled in.

"Aw, Lest, come on! Why'd you die?" Luna pouted, sinking in her throne and practically folding in on herself. "You're lucky we're letting you try this again…"

Arthur smiled at Lest with closed eyes. "If at first you don't succeed!"

Luna sprung from her chair like it was on fire. "Try it again! Except do it right this time."

Lest put his weight on his arm and positioned himself as upright as he could without actually getting off of the ground. "But Princess!"

She threw up a hand to silence him, wagging a finger impatiently. "What? You don't like the idea?"

Lest bit his lip. "No! I mean, that is to say…Why not send an actual hero?"

"You _are_ the hero."

Lest looked at Arthur with pleading eyes. The prince's response was like a slap on the back of Lest's already aching head. "Regrettably."

"But Princess, that beast… no man could ever slay it by himself! This isn't a task for one hero —or even twenty. This is a job for an army!"

"We don't have an army, and we don't need one! We have you. It _has_ to be you."

"But _why?"_

Arthur wouldn't meet his eyes. Although he spoke too quietly to hear, Lest could see him mouthing the same thing again. _"Regrettably…"_

* * *

Jones frowned as he watched Nancy remove the damp press—soaked through with a thick, earthy smelling substance—from Lest's head wound. He grabbed something from his desk, giving him an excuse to avert his gaze as his wife discarded of the bloodstained cloth and reached for another concoction. As she worked, her usually sweet voice took a stern edge.

"Not even twenty-four hours, and he's already been here twice!" she said. "Leon, what were you thinking taking him out like that?"

Leon glanced at her from his seat. "Technically, this is more like his first visit, since he was fine the first time."

Nancy sighed. "Leon…"

He locked his fingers together and sounded uncharacteristically somber. "Sorry. I thought we'd be alright."

Before silence had a chance to form and fester in the room, Jones spoke up. "Well, the important thing now is that both of you are alright."

"Still…" Nancy said, facing Leon entirely now that she'd finished her work. She'd lost the stern edge and spoke with concern. "Why would you decide to do something so dangerous?"

"I go to Leon Karnak all the time."

"Yes, but you haven't been to _Rune Prana_."

"Frey does it."

Nancy paused before she gently replied. "You're not Frey."

_Nngh…_

Everyone dropped the conversation dead on the floor as Lest shifted in bed.

Gods, he still had that headache he'd dreamt about, although it was noticeably more tolerable. He breathed in as deeply as he could before slowly peeling his eyes open.

He saw Nancy hovering over him, and bolted up in surprise. "What am I—"

She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "Please relax. You've been injured."

That certainly explained the headache, but Lest couldn't remember for the life of him how exactly it had happened. The last thing he could remember was…

Damn it. It had been important. He knew at least that much. Something about—

His expression must have changed, for everyone suddenly looked concerned. "Lest, what's —"

"—Dragons!" he blurted, throwing his legs over the side of the bed. "I need to see Ventuswill."

The concerned looks grew worse. Jones shook his head. "You need to rest right now, Lest. Head injuries—"

Lest ignored him completely. He stood from the bed, but was overcome with lightheadedness and quickly fell back into it. The doctor rushed to his side, but Lest gently pushed his arm away. He _needed_ to see Ventuswill.

Although he knew better, Lest couldn't shake the feeling that it was matter of life and death.

"Lest." Leon barked from across the room. "Stop being an idiot and listen to them."

Lest screwed his eyes shut and shook his head violently, tugging away as Jones once again reached out to grab him. Lest huffed and placed his head in his hands, using his knees as support. This was terrible. This mixture of pain and frustration and absolute _need_ was almost too much to handle. He dug his palms into his eyes.

Just as Lest thought he would die from the overwhelming cocktail of sour feelings, the door to the clinic opened behind him. His hands fell into his lap, and Lest shifted just enough to catch the entrants in his vision. Dolce and Pico. He momentarily forgot his woes as he recalled meeting Pico on the night of Ventuswill's return. She'd been one of the loudest, and definitely the most eccentric, people he'd met—if it was appropriate to refer to a ghost as a person, that is. Lest's interactions with her hadn't lasted long though, as Pico had left the second Dolce had.

Dolce set down the bag she'd been carrying and stepped closer. She must have sensed the tension in the room. "What's going on?"

Leon answered first. "I took Lest out fighting, and he hit his head. Now he won't calm down. Says he needs to see Ventuswill."

She arched a brow. "Hit his head? Is he touched?"

The words came from such a straight face they furthered Lest's frustrations. "I'm not crazy! And I _do_ need to see Ventuswill."

Dolce looked past Lest at Jones for the answer. "And why is that?"

The room fell silent and all eyes locked on Lest.

He didn't speak until Leon sighed. "You going to answer that?"

Lest didn't look up. "I remembered something…"

The quiet returned twice as heavy as realization washed over the room.

Jones spoke first. "I see."

Nancy placed a hand on Lest's shoulder. "I really think you should stay here and rest, but… Do you really feel it's so important that you need to see Ventuswill now?"

Lest nodded.

"I'll take him to see her. I can tend to him if something goes wrong." Dolce offered. "And I'll make sure he comes straight back."

After a moment of thought, Jones spoke. "I suppose that's alright."

"If he has this much strength to put up such a fight, I'd imagine he could handle a short walk." Leon added. Lest shot him a glance, and Leon smiled.

"Come along then." Dolce said, waiting for Lest to trudge across the room before opening the door and exiting behind him.

* * *

Her eyes bore into Lest the entirety of the walk. Even without turning to look at her, he could _feel_ Dolce staring at him. She didn't say a single word, but Pico quietly murmured a few things Lest couldn't quite catch. When they reached the entrance of the castle and Lest turned to say thanks, Dolce walked past him.

"I'll inform Ventuswill of your situation." She said. "I'll wait for you here when I'm finished."

She instructed Pico to stay behind to keep an eye on Lest as she vanished, and the ghost-girl seemed more than happy to oblige. In the blink of an eye, Pico's face was mere inches from Lest's. He stepped backwards once out of surprise, and then a second time for sheer comfort.

"You're _interesting._ " She gushed. "Not quuuuite as interesting as Dolly, but…"

Lest took a third step back and Pico crept closer. "Um, thank you."

"Dolly thinks so too." She chirped.

"I'm guessing it's Frey related?"

She nodded. "You're weirdly similar to her."

"So I've heard."

Something in his tone must have come off as irritated, as Pico's demeanor quickly changed. She suddenly sounded more serious. "It's not just the amnesia thing. Or the Leon Karnak thing. Or the Earthmate thing. Or—"

"—Alright, you may go." Dolce unknowingly interrupted.

As quickly as she could, Pico leaned in closer and whispered. "It's a _ghostly_ thing."

Lest blinked. He spoke louder than Pico, ruining any and all secrecy their exchange had. "Is that supposed to be a joke? Like, a pun or something?"

Dolce's eyes hardened as she smiled in a fashion that made Lest's blood run cold. "Pico, what were you whispering about?"

Pico vanished from Lest's vision and then reappeared above Dolce's shoulder, her face pressed up against the other's. "Nothing, of importance, your Excellency! Just a joke he's too slow to understand."

Lest huffed, but didn't speak. That was a hard one to respond to, and Dolce's expression hardly did much to encourage him. She waved a hand and stepped back from Pico, her expression easing as she did so. When she looked back at Lest, it was solid again—professional, and yet still kind. Behind her, Pico was pointing and mouthing something Lest figured to be, _"Ask her about it!"_

Lest frowned. Was it supposed to be a secret or not?

"If you feel ill, please do not hesitate to tell Ventuswill."

"I will, thank you…Um, Dolce?"

"Yes?"

"Ah…"

Pico zipped around wildly behind the taller woman, waving her arms frantically with a goofy grin. If she was trying to convey something other than her own oddity, her attempt was failing terribly. Dolce shot a look behind her, and Pico stopped immediately, only to start back up again the second Dolce looked away.

"Well, Pico said —"

 _"No, Pico did not say!"_ she shook her head and stomped her foot in the air, placing her hands on her hips.

"Uh."

Dolce looked at him awkwardly. "Pico said…?"

Pico pointed at herself and then at Lest. _"Ask!"_

It came out completely wrong. "Am I a ghost?"

Pico slapped her forehead.

Flustered, Lest did his best to recover. "Wait. No. I meant… am I strange?"

"Yes."

The answer was so painfully blunt that Lest could almost feel the words slap him in the face. "Oh."

Dolce smiled slightly and continued. "But that's hardly important. You're certainly not the strangest person I've met. Not by far." She turned slowly back around and made eye contact with Pico. "However, there _is_ something interesting about you that I'd like to ask you about, although I'd meant to ask you without offending."

"I'm not offended." Lest replied. "I was just really confused."

"I didn't make it confusing!" Pico huffed. "You just can't take a hint."

Lest frowned, but stayed quiet.

Dolce continued. "As you may have guessed, I have the ability to contact ghosts. Once I heard about the similarities between you and Frey, I did some asking around to see if anyone could recognize you —perhaps have seen you before you went to Leon Karnak… Most of the information was useless, but there was someone who claimed they saw you before you came to town."

Lest swore that his heart skipped a beat. "Really?"

"Yes, but the story was… strange. They were near the tower at the time you appeared, but they described your arrival as miraculous."

"Miraculous?"

"You appeared from nowhere, and magic didn't seem to be involved. It was as though you'd simply faded into existence."

The comment sounded painfully familiar. Lest remembered feeling the same way as he wandered through the forest. He'd figured later that it was simply his amnesia, but hearing someone else say it made the feelings return.

But of course…

"That's impossible." Lest said. "I mean, I know things, and I'm remembering things. And that just sounds…"

"Interesting!" Pico chimed. "Just like I said."

"You said you needed to see Ventuswill because you remembered something." Dolce continued. "If you don't mind my asking, why is that?"

He hesitated. "If you follow me in, you can hear when I tell Ventuswill."

* * *

Ventuswill was alone in the room, gazing upwards at the sky through the opening in the roof. She didn't seem to notice as Lest and Dolce entered, so he coughed. He winced at his own awkwardness directly afterwards. Only minutes ago he'd been more than ready to go against doctor's orders and speak with her. Now, as Ventuswill's expression changed from thoughtful to ecstatic, Lest felt apprehensive. He wondered if it was a good idea to question the motives of a dragon.

"Lest! Are you alright? I heard that you were injured."

"I feel okay. Thanks."

She smiled. "Happy to hear it." She paused and let out a roaring laugh before she continued. "I heard you made quite the fuss about seeing me despite it. You must have had an outstanding reason if it convinced Nancy and Jones to let you leave the clinic so soon."

He clutched the fabric of his clothes nervously. As friendly as she was, Lest still found Ventuswill was awfully imposing—particularly so after recalling his memories of dragon-slaying. He was half-relieved that Dolce hadn't already told her why he'd come.

"Well… it's about my memory."

She seemed surprised. "Oh? Did you remember something else?"

Lest blinked, and then continued when he realized that she must have heard that he remembered combat skills. "Um, yes, actually."

"That's great! What was it, if you don't mind my asking?"

The words Lest was searching for were caught in his throat. "Ah —well."

She cocked her head. "Is something wrong?"

He spat it out as a question. "Do we know each other?"

"What?"

"I mean before now. Before yesterday."

Much to Lest's chagrin, Ventuswill rose taller. "No. Not that I am aware of. Why?"

"I remembered something, and you were there."

He waited for Ventuswill to respond, but she remained silent with her eyes transfixed on Lest. Dolce and Pico didn't speak either. He took it as a sign to continue.

He described it as clearly as he could—from the ornate patterns on the stone floor to the dreary conditions in the sky. The scene played in his head as he voiced it, although he found he couldn't remember anything anyone had said, he saw everything else as clear as day. At the end of his story, Lest hopped atop Ventuswill's back and they vanished into the clouds. The memory cut off there. He realized at that moment how short the memory actually was. He'd only managed to make it seem longer by dragging out his detailing of things.

The more Lest thought about it, the more he realized how unlikely it was Ventuswill would remember what the floor had looked like anyway.

He would have killed to remember what they had been saying, but even under the growing pressure that formed as no one in the room spoke up, the block in Lest's memory would not lift.

"No, that never happened." Ventuswill said.

"But…"

"Maybe it wasn't a memory, but a premonition?"

"You mean like a vision of the future?" Lest asked.

She nodded. "I swear to you, that we have never met before."

The hope that Lest had managed to build up crumbled underneath her words, and now he was even more confused than he was before. He'd apparently teleported to Leon Karnak out of nowhere and then fallen unconscious and his not-memories suddenly made him clairvoyant. He couldn't quite explain it, but he _knew_ that was completely wrong. They were memories. They happened. He swore on his life that they happened.

But Ventuswill disagreed. So just what the hell was he actually remembering?

"…I don't feel well."

Dolce was at his side in a split second. Everyone voiced their hurried goodbyes and thanks as she took him by the arm and lead him back outside. She began asking Lest a series of questions about how he felt that didn't stop coming until they returned to the clinic. As Dolce relayed the information to Nancy and Jones, Lest curled up on a bed and waited for whatever they planned to do to be over. Even with all of the medical skills in the world, Lest doubted they'd be able to ease the distress that made him sick.


	8. Chapter 8

Something was definitely not right with Arthur. Luna couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she would have been willing to bet everything she owned that she was right. Arthur wasn't the type to up and leave work for no reason, and Luna had hardly spoken with him after the incident—falling asleep long before Arthur returned home. The most she'd managed to get out of him was already obvious to her. Her father had gone to see Lest.

 _Why_ was the part that stumped her. Why hadn't he told anyone he'd be going, or why he'd even need to secretly meet with Lest?

After turning the idea over in her head thousands of times, Luna began feeling uneasy.

As casually as she could make it look, she stared at Arthur with the eyes of an examiner—watching his every move and scrutinizing everything he did.

"Dad?"

He looked at her with a smile. "Yes?"

A perfectly normal response with a not-so-normal feeling attached to it. Luna frowned.

"Well…"

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to press the matter. But what could he possibly be so reluctant to tell anyone?

"Are you alright?"

His face changed. It was slight and only lasted for a split moment, but it was glaringly obvious to Luna. She had caught him off guard…

His face lit back up. "Of course! Why do you ask?"

…and Arthur was hoping wildly that she wouldn't notice.

She frowned. "Why'd you leave work early?"

"Is that still bothering you? I promise, I just wanted to speak with Lest."

"About what _?"_

"Lest. I wanted to see if he was settling in alright."

Luna blinked. She couldn't let it go. There was no way it was as simple as that. "But you didn't tell anyone."

Arthur left what he was doing and came towards Luna, placing a hand lovingly on the top of her head. "I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble with my forgetfulness."

 _But you just don't forget things. You're not that kind of person._ "Okay…"

Arthur removed his hand from her head and offered it to her. "Would you like to go out for a bit?"

"Now? You don't have to go to the shop?"

He shook his head. "I don't have any work to do today."

Luna forced herself to smile. She loved the idea of spending time with her father, but she _knew_ there had to be more to his story than he was letting on. He was lying about something—gods, she thought her father was a liar. It made being around him awkward.

Luna was determined to solve the mystery. If her father wouldn't cooperate…

"Sure, let's go."

She'd just have to talk to Lest.

* * *

Nothing about the start of the day seemed particularly festive.

Lest woke up in the same bed at the clinic and was cleared to leave. He supposed he wasn't entirely sure what he expected to see on a festival day, but he hadn't guessed that answer would be nothing. It was early, but he could still hear people chatting off in the distance—perhaps they were up to spend their day preparing for the festival?

His mind still in disarray from confusion and slowly creeping bitterness, he walked back to the inn so he could take a bath. With his body and clothes still covered in the filth from yesterday, the idea sounded heavenly. Although he'd been reluctant to accept any more charity, he was more than grateful to Lin Fa for allowing him to use the bath for free until he was able to properly adjust to his situation.

Lest whispered thanks to the gods when he found that the inn and bathhouse were still closed to the public. He knocked on Lin Fa's door and poked his head in when she answered. Although she had already told him it was okay, Lest still felt completely obligated to ask for her permission. He felt his face grow hot in embarrassment as he realized that he was asking another adult if he could wash himself. He felt like such a child…

The concerns drowned in the hot bathwater, but tackled him like vicious zombies the second he was dry.

There was no way he'd be able to get any peace until he had answers to his questions.

But just who was he supposed to talk to? Ventuswill had been unhelpful, and Dolce seemed convinced that she had exhausted her paranormal source of information.

The question burned in his mind. _Who_ was he supposed to talk to about memories that never happened and his spontaneous appearance at Leon Karnak?

More importantly, why didn't anyone else think it was as strange he did? Ventuswill and Dolce had been awfully quick to accept the fact that he might be clairvoyant. Even without memories, Lest couldn't even imagine that being true. If it was, he certainly would have had the foresight to avoid the incident, whatever it was, that caused him to lose his memory in the first place.

Unless he was just really stupid.

Lest felt pathetically useless to himself.

He dug his fingernails into his palm and cradled his head with his fisted hand. Again, he tried to summarize all of the information he had logically, but he couldn't do it. You can't logically order information that isn't logical in the first place.

Although he couldn't piece together the problem, Lest knew that Leon Karnak had to be the answer. He'd been given special permission to enter Rune Prana. There had to be a reason for that. There was something there his past self had gone there to do, and it was outside its gates were his current self had been born.

Something important was there, and he was going to find it.

Without thinking further on the subject, he gave his aching brain a rest and went to the town gate.

* * *

As Luna and Arthur stepped out of their home, Luna hoped she'd see Lest on the street. As Lest turned to leave town, he hoped that no one would see him.

Only one of them got what they wanted.

Luna flagged Lest down right as he was leaving. She tugged on Arthur's sleeve and pointed in Lest's direction after calling the Earthmate's name, freezing him in place.

"Let's say hi!"

Luna practically skipped towards Lest. Arthur paused and then approached slowly. Before Arthur had even made it halfway towards them, Luna was whispering things to Lest.

"I need to talk to you later."

"…What?"

"Ssh! Secretly. Meet me at the lake later, okay? An hour before the festival starts."

"Uh."

"Ssshhh!"

"Good morning, Lest. Are you feeling any better? I heard you were injured yesterday."

The Earthmate's eyes flicked up to the prince. _Crap._ He'd really been hoping to leave town unnoticed.

Luna spoke first. She sounded horrified. "What? I didn't hear that! How?"

Lest laughed weakly. "I, em, hit my head."

"Where?"

"Rune Prana." Wait. Did she mean where on his head, or where in the world? The pointless thought absorbed Lest completely until he looked back at Luna, whose tone struck the thought dead.

" _What?"_

"I'm okay now though!" he added quickly. "Nancy and Jones took care of me."

Luna eyed him with a look that left Lest feeling like she didn't quite believe him. His heart dropped in his chest. He really wished he could explain why Luna made him feel that way.

Right. _Princess_.

"Are you sure you're in good enough shape to leave town?" Arthur asked. He adjusted his glasses as if to give his idle hands something to do. The action made Lest wonder if the prince felt just as awkward as he did.

Mimicking the idea, Lest scratched the back of his head. "Yes, sir."

Neither of the men said anything afterwards, but they both plastered smile on their faces. Luna stood between them, completely dumbfounded by oddity of the situation. Something was definitely up between Arthur and Lest…

She decided to end the silence herself. "So where are you going?"

"Oh, uh—" Lest began. He hadn't thought of a cover story. "The forest."

"Why?"

Finally, an idea came. "To try magic. If I knew it in the past, I figure practice is the best way to remember doing it."

Luna's eyes lit up. "Dad knows magic! Maybe he can help you."

The prince's eyes went wide and his smile twitched.

Before he could speak, Lest answered. "Oh, no, I don't want to bother you on a festival day. Go have fun."

"But it doesn't start until tonight…" Luna said.

"Yes, but I don't want to tire you out or anything. It, uh, wouldn't be much fun if you were exhausted before it even started."

"What about you then?" Luna turned to face him. "Are you not going to participate?"

"Isn't it romantic?"

"Yes, but…"

Luna looked down and Arthur's eyes wandered elsewhere. Lest realized too late what his words carried. He winced slightly and bit down on his tongue. Arthur's wife was missing, and Lest had probably just forced that thought back into their heads. _Damn it, you moron!_

In a pathetic attempt to recover, he changed his mind. "Well, I guess I could participate."

It at least seemed to work on Luna. Her expression lit back up in an instant, while Arthur remained transfixed on something else.

"But I still think I should go by myself."

Lest's offer seemed to enough of an offer.

"Well, okay…" Luna said. "We'll see you at the festival!"

Lest nodded as the prince and his daughter turned to make their leave. After Arthur was a certain distance away, Luna quickly jumped back towards Lest. She whispered again. "Remember to meet me early!"

Lest nodded again. Before Luna turned back to face her father, Lest caught the horrible look in his eyes. Good gods, what was _that?_ The expression quickly contorted back into something pleasant when Luna looked at him.

"Have you been taught an escape spell yet?" he asked. "If you're going out alone, you should."

Lest shook his head, and Arthur stepped forward. The prince pulled something from his coat—a small, star-shaped book —and began scribbling in it. With a quick flick of his wrist, Arthur tore the page from the book and handed it to Lest.

"Instructions." he said.

"Thank you." Lest replied.

Once Arthur and Luna were finally gone, Lest left town and looked over the paper he'd been given as he walked. The top of the paper consisted of directions and an explanation that even the non-magically gifted should be able to use the spell. On the bottom of the note, spaced a few lines away from the rest, was something entirely different.

_"I'd like to speak with you alone."_

Again…?

If his own actions weren't the death of him, Lest was counting on Arthur and Luna to be.

* * *

Lest's mind fell back on the possibility that he really was an absolute idiot. Was he born that way, or was just his desire for answers driving him to do stupid things? He hoped that neither those possibilities were the answer. Hopefully Luna was just _that_ compelling. Maybe it was even his subconscious forcing him to fulfill her every wish—the wishes of a princess. At least that theory gave him something to blame his dreams on.

It certainly hadn't been that horrible look on the face of the prince.

He shook the royals out of his head and marched on, wondering why his idiotic idea didn't vanish as well. He'd been injured just yesterday, and, if Leon hadn't been there to save him, Lest couldn't doubt that he would have been killed by whatever had attacked him.

Yet here he was marching to his very possible death all alone, and the only other people who had any idea he'd even left town were Luna and Arthur—and Lest had lied to them about where he was going in the first place.

All of Lest's idiot thoughts went unattended to. He gave himself bonus points for acknowledging that he was being a careless moron, but he continued on. No matter how loudly his brain screamed for him to turn around, his heart would not allow it.

Whatever was compelling him to do this made Lest feel absolutely _right_ about it.

Lest moved carefully, refusing to make the mistake of losing focus again, and examined the room from top to bottom.

Something was off.

The strange noises he'd heard down the corridor when he'd been there with Leon were absent, leaving Lest alone with only the sounds of his breathing and footsteps. He remembered hearing from Forte that Gates respawned after a certain amount of time, but that did not appear to be true at the moment.

Slowly, Lest progressed further into Rune Prana.

He found absolutely nothing. Although he was fairly sure he could pick out flecks of light between in floor tiles. His head felt light despite the weight of stress, and he had to blink his surroundings back in to focus. Lest grimaced and his heart fell into the pit of his stomach. Why were all of these strange things happening to _him?_

And where… was he?

Right! Rune Prana.

But what was he doing again?

…

He was supposed to be saving—

—Ventuswill, of course. The absolute horror that settled in him nearly made him drop his sword. How could he forget something so important?

 _No._ There was something wrong about that. What was he thinking about before? Gates? He glanced around his surroundings again in a brief moment of mental clarity and noticed for the second time that the Gates had not respawned.

Why was that strange again? He'd only destroyed it few minutes ago, of course it wouldn't have come back.

 _No._ That was wrong too somehow… Hadn't he been there longer than a few minutes?

The light under his feet grew brighter. Without knowing why, Lest scowled. What the hell did that light want from him? He fell to his knees and scratched at the floor with his fingernails in an attempt to dig the light out. His scowl faded to a smile and he laughed weakly.

 _Yes._ Finally, something made sense in his broken head. If he could rip the floor open, he could just climb down the bottom of Rune Prana and rescue Frey —or was it Ventuswill? —no problem.

When his plan didn't appear to be working, Lest curled his now bloody fingers into the grooves of the floor and attempted to rip it up. When that plan also failed to work, Lest stood up in a huff and thrust the blade of his sword downwards. The weapon nearly slipped out of his hands when it caught in the tiles.

Rage overcame him again. _Fine._ If the light wasn't going to let him come down, he'd just go down the normal way. That would show it.

Lest took his first step, and the floor completely gave way beneath him. Or at least it appeared to be that way. It certainly looked like he was falling, but he didn't feel that way…

He examined his new surroundings and found them difficult to comprehend. He was standing on the bright white that he had registered as light, but it was also everywhere else around him. The names of the swirling shapes off in the distance wouldn't come to him, but Lest didn't care.

He laughed again and closed his eyes. His head felt really, _really¸_ empty. Compared to the way he'd felt this morning, this was absolute bliss. What had he been so upset over in the first place? He'd been with his family, and soon he'd be able to—

His eyes snapped back open and the scenery was ripped away, replaced with an unfamiliar view of Rune Prana.

 _No. Nonononononono._ None of that was right. What the _hell_ had he just been thinking? What had even just happened? The weight of his worries anchoring him back down to reality, Lest panicked and searched the room wildly. He dropped his sword and put his hands to his face just to make sure he still existed.

He was going to vomit. He'd come to Rune Prana for answers and instead he'd had his head torn off and crammed with more unhelpful nonsense.

It was just like before when he'd remembered Ventuswill, except this time he knew it had to be wrong. It was feeling Lest couldn't even begin to explain. The collection of thoughts and feelings felt like they belonged to him, but they were impossible.

As his knees buckled from his overwhelming nausea, Lest wondered what he'd done in the past to deserve what was happening to him now. After he was sure he could control his stomach, he lied on the floor and shut his eyes to collect himself. His hand extended towards the hilt of the fallen sword, but his fingers brushed against something different.

He opened his eyes and found jewelry. Curious, he wrapped his hand around the tiny object and brought it to his face as he sat back up, his other hand picking up his sword. It was hardly a remarkable piece of work. It looked old and worn—tarnished and covered in flecks of black and brown. Lest licked one of his fingers and rubbed it on the ring, and it cleaned up almost instantly. He was surprised to find a colored gemstone underneath the grime.

It was very pretty, and it somehow seemed familiar…

Lest wondered how the ring had gotten there. Rune Prana wasn't a place people frequented often—

—excluding Frey, apparently.

Lest considered that it may belong to Frey, but he quickly dropped the idea. It was covered in too much filth to have been left recently. That, or Frey wasn't particularly careful with her belongings.

He decided that, either way, he would take the object back in to town with him. If it wasn't Frey's, he could probably sell it and pay for his own expenses. If it was…

…What _if_ it was? What did that mean?

He didn't question it further. Lest pocket it the object and carried on. He'd had enough of Rune Prana for today.


	9. Chapter 9

Lest fiddled with the ring in his pocket all the way back to town. He'd already made plans to meet up with Luna first, and then he would go see Arthur about his note. The prince dealt in trade, so he would probably be able to tell Lest if the jewelry was worth anything while he was there. That, or he could confirm if the ring belonged to his wife or not—an idea that Lest was gradually viewing as more unlikely. He silently wondered if he truly believed it or if he just didn't want to.

Either way, it shouldn't matter, right? Frey was supposed to be unstoppable, judging from everything Lest had heard. Even the most amazing heroes must have dropped things every now and then.

After thinking back to the way Arthur had been looking at him earlier, Lest briefly wondered if his idea was really so great. Regardless, he vowed that he'd show the prince. It would be unfair of him not to.

With a few hours to kill before the festival, Lest decided to talk a walk around town. He didn't have anything better to do, and it would give him a chance to attempt to collect his thoughts again. Or at least that's what Lest told himself. In all honesty, he had no desire to try and wrap his head around everything that happened.

His feet carried him without direction until he wound up at the observatory. Surprisingly enough, he was there alone. Lest leaned over the handrail and looked across town, spotting flecks of color that made up people both far and near the building. Feeling a bit daring, he leaned a bit further over the railing, just enough to make him feel uneasy and distract him from his pooling thoughts again.

Sighing, he shifted back fully on to the observation deck and circled the platform. From this high up, Lest felt like he could see the entire country and then some. When he, briefly curious, held his eyes to one of the eastward facing binoculars and was greeted with a view of the ocean, he realized that his assumption was probably right.

Too absorbed with his own view of the sea, Lest didn't notice when one of the colorful blurbs climbed up to the observatory.

"Lest..."

The Earthmate's blood chilled as he registered the sudden sound of his name being spoken, but he quickly recovered. Lest turned to face the speaker with a smile.

"I thought you had a date today?"

Leon returned the expression. "I do."

"So?"

Leon joined Lest near the edge and leaned against the guardrail. "So what? It's still early. We're not meeting until tonight. "

Lest frowned. "So you came to find me in the meantime?"

"Yep."

"Uh, why?"

Leon smiled in a way that make Lest want to shove him over the edge of the observatory. "To chat."

"Leon."

He leaned further over the edge and cradled the side of his head in his hand, tapping his ever-present fan against the railing. "So how stupid are you?"

"What?"

"I saw you leaving town by yourself today. I can only _imagine_ where you went."

Lest stiffened, but he failed to find the words he was looking for. He hadn't noticed, but his expression must have changed.

Leon sighed. "Don't look so surprised. You're not exactly very subtle."

Lest's reply was almost to himself. "So what if I go off by myself? I'm an adult."

"Yes, but—"

"—I don't have to stay here."

Lest could almost taste the sour tang of his own bitterness.

"I know, and I don't remember anyone saying you had to."

"But everyone expects me to." Lest mumbled. "Everyone expects me to stay here and play hero."

It hadn't been something Lest had meant to say, and the words somehow felt disgusting in his own mouth as they spilled out. Leon remained silent, but Lest was certain he could hear his thoughts—the exact same damn thoughts that everybody else in town seemed to be so fond of.

_You're just like Frey. You have to save her. We're counting on you. You're our amnesiac-Earthmate-hero. Just like . . . . . . ._

_What about_ Lest. _What about_ me.

"I'm not Frey."

_But I'm close enough._

"I know."

_I can't do this._

"No."

"Lest?"

_.No._

The Earthmate hadn't realized that he'd backed himself up against the wall of the observatory. Leon moved closer and raised his voice, but Lest seemed just as oblivious. "Lest."

"This is too hard."

Leon retracted the hand he'd extended out towards the other man. " _Lest."_

Having already pushed himself down a hill, Lest's thoughts kept tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. "What the hell does everyone _expect_ from me? I'm just some stranger who doesn't have any idea who he is, but everyone thinks I'm some big, damn hero. I remember things that never happened, and— _damn it,_ I'm expected to slay a tower's worth of monsters only _one_ person's ever been able to handle, _just because I remind people of her."_

Leon's eyes shifted. "Lest. Stop talking."

The Earthmate grew louder. "But apparently I'm some sort of god, because not even _Frey_ could come back from Rune Prana!"

Finally, Leon yelled back. " _Lest!"_

" _Do you understand what everyone is asking me to do_? They're—"

It was the door to the observatory swinging open that snapped Lest's mouth shut. Just as quickly as the conversation had escalated, Lest shrunk back as far against the wall as he could and cast his eyes down away from Leon. Lest suddenly felt worse than ever. Had he really just spouted all of that?

"What is going on up here? We heard shouting." Without looking, Lest instantly knew it was Forte speaking. Although the "we" she was referring to was a mystery until he forced his gaze quickly upwards and saw Kiel standing behind her. Forte had her sword drawn, and somehow that managed to make Lest feel even more embarrassed.

When Lest remained silent, Leon spoke for him. "Nothing. We were just talking."

The siblings looked confused. "So loudly?"

Leon waved his hand as if to cast off their suspicion. "I may or may not have said something that offended our friend here."

Forte sheathed her sword and sighed. "Leon…"

He shrugged. "What? How was I supposed to know he was as feisty as you?"

Her voice rose, flustered by the comment. "Don't say things like that!"

Kiel laughed as the two continued to banter. Still horrified with himself, Lest shifted out of view and gripped the handrail. He considered casting an escape spell and shutting himself up in his room at the inn—

—no, that wasn't _his_ at all. He'd just be locking himself in a room that could be easily unlocked when the town decided they needed him.

 _I'm trapped._ By the town _and_ his own damn self. Even if he did leave, he had nowhere to go and no money to support him. And, even without a proper memory, he still had his heart, and Lest knew the guilt of running away would eat him alive.

Even though it was turning into an absolute hell, he couldn't run away. What kind of person did that make him? Gods, if he could just calm down.

_Why can't I just—_

"Hey, Lest?"

He didn't care whose voice it was. He didn't look, and he didn't think about it as he replied. "Yes?"

"Are you… okay?" Kiel. That's who it was. And he was getting awfully damn close to—and Leon was staring at him again, _gods._

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You look like you might be sick."

_Yes. Be sick. Yes, that's perfect. Calm down._

_Run._

_No. Don't do that._

What Lest had planned to say morphed into something completely different. As his focus shifted away from what was happening, he thought of the proper magic in his head. "I…need to go."

Before Kiel could respond, Lest cast his escape spell and was gone.

* * *

His spell hadn't taken him far, and his legs wouldn't take him any farther. Content enough, Lest removed his boots, rolled up his pants, and hopped off the bridge leading into town and waded in the water below. It was only slightly deeper than he'd expected, soaking the bottoms of his pants just above his knees. He rolled them up a bit more, and then he walked only a few feet before seating himself on the grass—his legs still emerged in the cold water.

Lest couldn't say what had possessed him to do any of it, but, as he leaned back into the grass and closed his eyes, he decided that questioning it was pointless. The sounds of people were faint, overpowered by the slow rush of the water. With his eyes closed, it was all Lest could focus on, and his overwhelming worries slowly drifted into the back of his mind.

He just wanted to be alone. He didn't even want to hear the sound of his own voice—his own horrible voice reminding him of even more horrible things. At that moment, only the natural world around him mattered. Not the people and their problems, and not the thousands of things picking at Lest's sanity. That was what he should have done earlier… Forgetting about things was a lot easier than trying to understand them. He wondered if he had these kinds of mental conflicts before he lost his memory.

Lest slowly opened his eyes and stared up into the sky. With sudden, new found, clarity of mind, he thought about what he'd been uncontrollably shouting about only minutes ago.

" _Do you understand what everyone is asking me to do_? They're—"

_"—They're asking me to kill myself trying to save a woman who's probably dead."_

Lest bit his lip. Leon must have known what Lest had been thinking, or he wouldn't have kept trying to stop him. It would have been a horrible thing to say, and, if Forte hadn't interrupted, he would have shouted it loud enough for the gods to hear.

Lest half heartedly wondered if anyone in town would give his thoughts any credit. Even knowing what Lest did now, everyone seemed locked in their honest belief that Frey was still alive and simply waiting to be saved. The idea that Frey could die seemed as impossible to the residents of Selphia as the idea that she could live did to Lest.

Or maybe no one had actually thought of the idea yet? Although it swam with millions of thoughts going a mile a minute, Lest's head had been empty of memories. Perhaps a lack of a life of his own gave him more time to speculate about such terrible things. Leon at least seemed aware of the idea, but—

—and Lest's own thoughts once again made his heart sink.

_"I'm sorry, I had everything I wanted to say in my head, and now I can't bring myself to say any of it."_

_'I'd like to speak with you alone.'_

Could Arthur have thought...?

The idea seemed awfully wrong to Lest. Shouldn't someone's husband be one of the last to think the worst? Then again, Lest supposed, maybe Arthur should have been one of the first. His love and experience bred concern for his wife, and Luna's youth made her blind to even the idea her mother might be dead.

He couldn't explain why, but thinking about the subject made Lest feel awfully depressed.

Although it went against everything he currently believed in, Lest prayed that he would be able to bring Frey home alive—if only so he wouldn't have convince her family she wouldn't be coming back at all.

Lest thought about it for only a minute more and finally found a brighter side of things. Real or not, he _had_ remembered a few things in his short time in Selphia. He'd gone from novice to skilled in only moments of swordplay, so maybe, if he kept at it, he'd remember enough about himself to ease his nerves—and maybe even something that could get him through Rune Prana in one piece and find Frey.

Then maybe everyone in town would realize Lest was his own person and leave him alone…

_It'll be alright._

Lest smiled.

_Yes, you can do this._

Wait… was that right?

_Make them happy for me._

Whatever. As he closed his eyes again, the water carried off the rush of his questions and concerns.

* * *

As the sun slowly crept behind the hills, Lest made his way back into town to meet with Luna. During his walk, the observatory in the distance caught his attention. He frowned, the sour feelings from earlier quickly resurfacing. He did his best to cram them back down, and he promised himself that he'd have to talk to Leon again when he went back to the inn.

"Lest!"

The Earthmate blinked. That couldn't possibly be…

"Arthur?"

_'I'd like to speak with you alone.'_

As Lest turned to face the prince, he was met with a kind smile and nod. "May I speak with you now?"

"Now?"

"Yes, if you don't mind."

Lest hesitated. Not this. Not right now. "I'm on my way to—" _not meet Luna. Don't say that._ "—well…"

"This shouldn't take long."

Lest couldn't think of any way out of the situation. He nodded slowly and followed Arthur as the prince took a few steps backwards, presumably to be out of earshot of anyone they couldn't see.

The look in Arthur's eyes hardened with determination—

—but it was gone the second he opened his mouth. The prince fidgeted. "I'd like to be direct with you."

Lest replied hesitantly as he listed the possible topics in his head. "Go ahead."

"Do you know my wife?"

That hadn't been on Lest's list.

"…Excuse me?"

"Frey. _Frey._ Do you know her?" Arthur's fingers curled tightly around the cuffs of his sleeves. "You came from Rune Prana…"

"With amnesia!" Lest's reply came out louder than he'd planned, and he lowered his voice before speaking again. "I swear to you, I wouldn't lie about that."

Arthur suddenly looked like he would choke on his own shame. "I'm sorry. I suppose I was just... This is extremely frustrating."

Lest's tone eased. "I understand."

"Do you think that perhaps you… _did_?" the last word came out strangely, as if Arthur had wanted to avoid it.

 _Did._ In this case, it suggested two different things. 'Maybe you met her before you lost your memory' and 'Maybe she's dead.' Lest remembered his own bleak thoughts from earlier. So Arthur really _had_ been thinking it… Fully aware of this, Lest clung to the former.

"Before I lost my memory?"

Arthur nodded slowly.

"I couldn't say… but I promise I'll tell you if I remember anything. I've been recalling some things."

"Of course. Thank you."

Lest couldn't tell if the response was honest or not.

The Earthmate sighed in relief as the conversation died out into silence, but he remained on edge. He wondered if the painful awkwardness between him and the prince would ever go away.

"I… should get going now."

Lest's mind jumped back to the ring still in his pocket. For some reason, showing it to Arthur seemed like an even worse idea than it had before. As he watched the prince turn away, Lest considered forgetting about the object and never bringing it up, but he quickly shot down the thought. No. He'd sworn to himself that he would do this. This was _important—_ it was something that Arthur _had_ to see.

The way Lest's heart thumped heavily in his chest made him feel like a child.

He slipped his hand into his pocket and called out to the prince. "Wait, Arthur… There's something I wanted to show you."

With a piqued curiosity, Arthur's full attention was back on Lest. He adjusted his glasses. "And what is that?"

Lest uncurled his fingers and let the ring rest on his open palm. "I found this at Rune Prana earlier."

"Today?"

Lest nodded without thinking.

"You said you were going to the forest."

Lest flushed. "I, er, changed my mind."

Arthur didn't seem convinced. "I see."

The prince stepped closer to examine the object, but the Earthmate couldn't read his expression. Arthur plucked the object from Lest's hand and touched his glasses again. Neither man so much as blinked.

And then they spoke each other's names in unison.

Having interrupted each other, they both locked eyes, seeking permission to carry on first.

It was Lest who spoke. Something didn't feel right. "Arthur—"

—the sharp sting of Arthur's palm across Lest's face shut him up immediately. With his mouth agape in shock, his eyes shot back to the prince. The look on his face was so eerily calm Lest thought it looked like a mask.

God damn it, Arthur had just _hit_ him, and now he was just staring at him!

Just as Lest had gathered up enough words to spit out, Arthur cut him off. The flustered tone of his voice hardly matched the stone-expression. "Why did you have this?"

The reply was almost a scream. "I found it! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You _found_ it?" judging by the way the prince's voice faltered as he tried to raise it to rival Lest's tone, Lest figured yelling wasn't something that Arthur did often. "Just lying around?"

"Yes! At Rune Prana! What is your problem?"

"This is Frey's."

Lest's rage eased as Arthur's mask cracked—

"This is my wife's _wedding_ ring."

—and then it was gone completely.


	10. Chapter 10

Lest expected to be grabbed by the collar, tackled into the water, and held under until Arthur had drowned him.

But the prince reached for himself, wrapping his arms around tight as if he were trying to restrain himself. He said nothing, instead choking on quiet and terrible sounds that made Lest feel sick. He couldn't even read the prince's wide-eyed expression. What the hell was he—

— _Trying not to cry._

But he—

— _His wife is dead._

And Lest had her ring.

More than anything, Lest wanted for Arthur to stop staring at him with that horrible expression. Compared to this, the mask was a thousand times better. Awkward silence and a million fake smiles for the rest of his life would be better than this moment of absolute distress. Lest imagined that even being drowned would have been more pleasant.

Much to Lest's horror, Arthur slowly and quietly repeated his question. "Why… did you have this?"

"I...I told you—"

" _—_ No."

"I _—_ "

 _"—No."_ Arthur shook his head. "I don't want to hear it. I—"

Whatever the prince had planned to say was lost as he quickly closed his mouth. His arms went slack, releasing his hold on himself and falling back into place at his side. He stood up straight and, with a smile plastered back on his face, looked back at Lest.

"I apologize. I didn't mean to—I…"

"Arthur?"

"Please, excuse me."

Lest's hand latched onto Arthur's wrist before he could think to stop it. The prince seemed startled by the reaction and violently tore away, grazing Lest's skin and leaving behind stinging strips of red and tiny beads of blood. Lest winced, suddenly wondering what unconscious decision had possessed him to put his hands on someone so upset with him—and then made him feel that decision was to completely _right_ even as his fingers burned. He grimaced inwardly. He must have _really_ wanted Arthur to kill him.

Either the prince didn't notice he'd drawn Earthmate blood, or he'd run out of apologies. Blindly, Lest grabbed at him again— _because it felt so right—_ but the repeat action had a repeat consequence.

"Arthur—"

The mask broke again. "—I don't want to speak with you right now."

"Listen to me."

"Stop _touching_ me."

Lest completely disobeyed, opting for _more_ bodily contact when his hands proved ill suited for restraint. He wrapped his arms around Arthur's and—

—good _gods_ why in the hell was he doing that?

But he didn't let go. Holding on felt right too.

"Don't leave me."

Lest's mind and Arthur spoke at the same time. " _What?"_

 _Lest, stop talking you're ruining everything._ Why did he even— _do you even realize what you're saying?_ No. _Stop._ Stop. _I want to stop talking._

"I don't—"

Before Lest could finish, his half-wish of being submerged underwater by Arthur was granted. Apparently, wrapping your arms around someone who wanted nothing to do with you distracted them enough to lose coordination. Having focused all his attention on trying to tear away from Lest seemed to erase Arthur's memory of the waterway behind him.

The sudden shock of the event loosened Lest's grip enough for the Arthur to kick him off, although the weight of water seeping into his already thick layers of clothing quickly pulled him back down. As Arthur fought to pull himself back onto land, Lest elected to stay underwater and argue with himself in private.

If Arthur was saying anything or making an expression, Lest didn't see it through his bleary eyes.

 _You damn_ idiot, _what the hell was that? Do you want him to hate you or not?_

_Stop._

_No. Why should I?_

_You really shouldn't think such—_

_—breathe._

Right. Water wasn't oxygen. Lest frantically pushed himself back to the surface and inhaled so quickly that he dropped his internal argument. He wasn't sure which half of him had won, but he prayed that it was the sane side. _Please let it be his sane side_. Anything but the foreign blossom of him that randomly decided to claw at the ground and hold on to Arthur like his life was dependent on it. He _really_ hated that side.

As Lest slowly forced himself back on his feet, he wondered how it was possible to hate himself for doing something that felt so _right._

 _No_. That wasn't the problem. He was mad _because_ it felt right. It shouldn't have, but it did. First, Rune Prana had tricked him into thinking Arthur and Luna were family, then it spat out Frey's wedding ring, and Lest was willing to bet his life that it was that stupid tower that had just made him feel the way he just had. He didn't care if that didn't make sense, because it did to him.

He imagined the structure laughing at him, and he very quietly swore revenge on it.

"Are you _insane_?"

Lest blinked and then registered that Arthur was still present. Present, sopping wet, and staring at him again. Before Lest could give an answer, he was distracted by the pattering of footsteps quickly growing louder behind him.

Great. They'd attracted an audience.

"What's going on?"

 _Great._ It was the same audience he'd claimed the attention of back at the observatory. Surely they would ask him questions about his earlier running away if given the chance. And now they had this—whatever it actually was—to wonder about.

Whatever face he was making must have been alarming, because, when he turned around to look at the three people he expected to see, the _four_ of them reacted differently to him. Leon narrowed his eyes, Forte eyed him suspiciously, Kiel widened his eyes like he'd just seen something horrifying, and, trailing behind the three of them with the concern practically dripping off her face, was Luna.

Lest suddenly felt sick. _Not now._

Arthur sighed and shook his head, back to attempting normalcy. "Lest and I…"

He stopped speaking and awkwardly fumbled with his glasses, turning his face away from the audience. "Em…"

 _Crap._ If Arthur couldn't think a decent lie to convince everyone everything was peachy and that Lest _hadn't_ just tackled the prince, then Lest was completely sure he wasn't going to be able to think of one either.

He couldn't even think of a fake reason they would have been fighting in the first place, but he sure as hell didn't want to say it was because of Frey's wedding ring. Especially not in front of Luna. Lest was fairly certain that traumatizing Arthur's daughter wouldn't score him any prince points.

On top of that, mentioning he'd found the ring would probably only convince the town to send Lest headfirst back into Rune Prana, since Arthur was apparently one of the only people tragically clever enough to assume the obvious. Frey probably wasn't coming back.

Lest bit his lip. "Probably wasn't" just might have been the understatement of the year.

Much to the horror of her father and her designated hero, Luna spoke first. "Dad?"

The split-second silence between them seemed to last a painful amount of time. "Yes?"

"Why are you and Lest wet?"

It wasn't exactly the question Lest had been expecting, or Arthur, it seemed, but it was definitely a valid one. Then again, Forte and friends had already bothered to ask the other obvious question: _"What's going on?"_

Lest honestly wished he could have answered.

Arthur's answer was so terrible, and yet equally as valid as the question, that it made Lest feel embarrassed. "We were in the water."

The on-looking group of four answered in impressive unison. "… _Why?"_

More of that impossibly hard question…

Neither Lest or Arthur said anything, instead opting to stand completely still and stare like silence and awkward staring were perfectly acceptable answers. Lest regret bothering to look at Leon, who further narrowed his eyes at the Earthmate as if to say _"I know exactly what you did."_ Lest wouldn't put knowing everything past Leon.

Luna took a step closer. "…Dad?"

Lest would have given her anything if she would just stop _saying_ that with that horrible look on her face.

"I…"

When Arthur's words caught on his throat, Luna quickly turned towards Lest.

"Lest?"

"Um… yeah?"

Luna sucked in a breath and curled her hands into fists at her sides. Now _she_ looked like she was trying not to cry. "What happened?"

Evidentially noticing the princess' distress, Leon quickly took over. "You two have a lover's quarrel? Look, I'm sorry, but the fireflies have better things to do than watch you guys fight all evening."

Lest doubted he would have appreciated that comment even under completely different circumstances. When the rest of the group looked at Leon and conveyed their confusion, Lest wondered if the comment even made sense. At the very best, it at least seemed to have distracted Luna enough for her to forget just how upset she was getting.

Lest took advantage of the situation and quickly came up with a half-lie he felt stupid for not thinking of quicker. "I, eh, I tripped and fell into the water."

Forte pointed an observatory finger. "But you're both soaked."

"I fell on top of Arthur."

It was apparently such a stupid response that all eyes fell on Arthur in search of confirmation. Figuring he'd caught the prince off-guard, he wasn't surprised when all Arthur had to offer was a silent nod of his head.

The way everyone changed expression made it seem that, apparently, Lest's spur of the moment lie wasn't quite good enough—even with royal backing. Granted, the chances of Lest tripping over what appeared to be nothing _and_ just so happening to take the prince down with him all the way down were probably more than slim. It probably made their very-special hero look too dumb to live, and it didn't do much for Arthur either.

Much to Lest's horror, that wasn't the reason the story didn't work.

Kiel cleared up the misunderstanding. "But…we heard yelling?"

Despite the fact they were standing in the middle of town, Lest hadn't even thought that anyone would have _heard_ anything. He answered without considering if they had heard _what_ they had been yelling about. "Well, yeah. We were falling."

Still not good enough.

"Ah, and my glasses fell off in the water. I couldn't see Lest after I got back up. It was… alarming."

And suddenly it was. Almost. Luna and Leon still looked remarkably unimpressed.

For the second time, Luna surprised Lest with her reply. "Dad, let's go home, okay?"

"Didn't you want to go to the lake for the festival…?"

She nodded but had already taken her father's arm. "Yes, but you can't go with me if you're all wet."

Arthur laughed. "Right, of course."

As the royal pair left, both of their looks spoke to Lest loud and clear, _We're not done yet._

Leon tapped Lest on the shoulder with the tip of his fan to get the Earthmate's attention, but Lest didn't so much as turn around.

"Lest—"

"—Er, I can't stay. I have something to do."

"But—"

Sucking in a quick breath and taking a page from Arthur's book, Lest spun around and flashed the best fake smile he could muster. "Don't you guys have to be somewhere too?"

Forte and Leon exchanged glances. "Well…"

Lest waved it off as if it were nothing. "Go have fun. We can always talk later."

* * *

As the sun finally crept behind the hills, Lest made his way around town to meet with Luna. His head was screaming at him for it—knowing it would only be painfully awkward. His heart, on the other hand, was too busy violently pounding " _go"_ in his ears that he couldn't stop himself.

Still, he made sure to go as far out of his way as he could.

During his walk, the observatory in the distance caught his attention. He frowned, the sour feelings from earlier quickly resurfacing. He did his best to cram them back down, and he promised himself that he'd have to talk to Leon again when he went back to the inn, especially after ditching him for a second time that day.

With a hesitant hand, Lest reached to knock on royalty's door.

The princess was on top of him before he even touched knuckle to wood. Lest quickly registered what was going on as Luna narrowed her eyes and slipped out the door, quickly cracking it behind her.

"Dad, I'm going outside for a second. I'll be right back!"

If Arthur replied, Luna shut the door so quickly that Lest missed it completely.

Luna's hushed words came without hesitation. "What's going on?"

He didn't have to, but Lest asked anyway. "With what?"

"My dad."

Lest shifted uncomfortably underneath Luna's gaze.

"He's been acting weird since he went to talk to you. And you have too!"

"Have we…?"

Luna nodded firmly. "What did he say to you?"

Lest almost choked on his answer. "Nothing special."

Luna was relentless. Her cheeks puffed up, and she knit her eyebrows together. "What did you talk about?"

"Me." The answer felt safe enough. It was the truth—but not quite enough of it for Lest to feel uncomfortable.

It also wasn't satisfying. Luna's cheeks deflated with a sigh. "That's what Dad said, but I don't get it! If your conversation was so normal, why is he acting so weird? And why'd he leave work without telling anyone? You must have said something important!"

Lest stared blankly at the young princess as she caught her breath. "Is that really all you talked about?"

"Well…" Lest regret his hesitation immediately.

"Well what?"

_Son of a—_

"We also talked about Rune Prana." Unlike his previous answer, that was only a half truth. Or maybe it was more like a fourth of a truth. Lest prayed silently that Luna wouldn't push the issue much further. The last thing he wanted to do was gossip about the prince with the prince's daughter.

Actually, the last thing he wanted was for Luna to relay this information to Arthur.

_Oh gods, what if she asks him about this. What if—_

"Oh." Luna blinked. She crossed her arms and twisted her face with thought. "I think I get it now…"

It was hardly the response Lest had been expecting, but he appreciated it all the same. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Dad doesn't really like talking about Rune Prana with me. I've been training really hard with Forte so I could go someday, but Mom and Dad never let me."

"I see."

"Still though." Luna continued, making Lest's stomach turn as she did so. "It is weird that he'd leave work without telling _anyone._ He says he just forgot, but… He just doesn't forget!"

"Everyone forgets things." Lest offered.

Luna frowned, as if hearing such a thing from someone who'd forgotten everything made the information less valid. "But—"

Lest cut her off before she could ask any more questions. " _—_ Things _have_ been pretty hectic. With me showing up so suddenly and all."

The princess considered this for a moment. "I guess that makes sense…"

Relieved, Lest nodded.

"But…"

_Damn it._

"That still doesn't explain _you._ "

"Er, what do you mean?"

Luna's arms were folded so tightly against her chest Lest was amazed that she didn't suffocate herself. "You 'fell on top' of Dad? Seriously? I'm not stupid."

The door behind Luna creaked open, and both the princess and the Earthmate jumped.

"No, but Lest is telling the truth."

Lest blinked, his body refusing to move but his eyes darted away from the prince—now clad in something dry.

Was he? Lest remembered having to think pretty quickly to come up with that excuse.

Luna stared back up at her father and then down at her feet. She said nothing.

"Lest tripped, and I tried to catch him."

"But…" Luna's quiet voice trailed off, and Arthur placed his hand on top of her head.

"What I spoke to Lest about wasn't anything I want you to worry about, alright?"

Looking defeated, Luna sighed and nodded. She glanced at her father, and then quickly at her hero, and apparently decided that the situation had become too frustrating to deal with—even for her. She'd been given her answers, and she would be given nothing more.

Of course, it never hurt to try. "Why don't you ever want to talk to me about Rune Prana?"

"Because I don't want you to get any ideas."

"I've been training hard! And Mom can do it!"

 _Can._ The single word made Lest and Arthur blanche.

Can. Because Frey was going to come back, and only two people seemed to think otherwise. And whatever attempts Arthur had been making to avoid the subject of Frey and Rune Prana, Lest and unwittingly thwarted in a matter a seconds.

Lest did his best not to think too much on the subject.

The concern on Arthur's face was as clear as day. "Luna, please."

She grumbled, but didn't press the matter further. "Can we go now?"

Arthur nodded, and Luna quickly jumped five steps ahead of them—halfway across the plaza before Arthur had even moved.

The prince seized the opportunity whisper to Lest. "You told her we talked about Rune Prana?"

"I—sorry. I didn't—"

The prince held up a hand to stop Lest's babbling. "No, don't be."

Lest shut up immediately as Arthur pulled something from his pocket and brought his closed fist to his hand, quickly looking back towards Luna. Lest's guess as to what it could possibly be was confirmed as Arthur continued. "You said you found this at Rune Prana."

Lest nodded.

With a hard look of resolve in his eyes, the prince locked eyes with Lest. "I want to go."

Lest nearly vomited his reply. "What?"

"To Rune Prana. With you. I want to believe…" Arthur stopped midsentence, laughed weakly, and then continued. "I'm not quite sure what I want to believe, but… I feel I'd rather you be telling the truth about this. I need to know."

Lest froze. Just what was Arthur getting—

—Ah. If he hadn't found it, why else would he have Frey's ring? Part of Lest wanted to slap the glasses off Arthur's face. How dare he just assume that—

—Well…

…

Lest nodded slowly. "Alright."

The prince mirrored the action and turned to make his leave. "I'll meet you just outside of town tonight. After Luna falls asleep."

Lest look up towards the sky and caught Leon Karnak towering in the distance. _Laughing at him._

Liar. _You horrible, filthy, disgusting liar._ You have her ring. _I found it._ At Rune Prana. _You god damn liar._ I didn't know her. _But you have her wedding ring._ Liar.

I don't know Frey.

_You're wrong._

He snorted and narrowed his eyes. Soon, he would go back and storm the thing with such a fury that even the gods would be fearful of him. Soon, he would fish out the answers from the sea of questions flooding his head. And, soon, he hoped, the strange part of him howling about familiar things he'd never seen would be silenced.

He knew nothing about Rune Prana, but he felt he knew everything. He knew somewhere within the monster ridden confines were his answers, and Lest was determined to find them—even if it killed him in the process.

Whether or not it was Lest himself, the tower, or Arthur that did the killing, was just another mystery to be solved.


	11. Chapter 11

There was something very strange about the current situation.

It felt an awful lot like she was asleep, but, through her heavy eyelids she could still make out the fuzzy figures of her husband and daughter occasionally fading into vision. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but she always found herself blurting out her own words—equally as far off and unclear sounding in her own head.

Somewhere in that dark state of semi awareness she knew she just feelings and memories, but she wasn't quite aware enough to know what that meant.

Amidst the hazy visions, sounds, and emotions, there was only one clear voice.

_Mine._

But it hardly made sense. When she'd find herself uncontrollably answering questions she didn't actually hear, she couldn't understand _that_ voice—and that voice must have been hers. But then there was this crystal clear sound ringing throughout the darkness, more often than not panicking about something that she didn't quite understand.

Sometimes she'd say something to her other voice, and it would shout things back at her—panicking even more. Other times it would simply go on as if these two voices were two separate people playing the same role. Other times, the voice was saying too many things at once for her to completely understand what it was saying.

She didn't know what her other voice was so often worried about, but she didn't know how much longer she should have kept talking to it.

When her heart would warm upon seeing familiar fuzzy figures, the other voice would shout at her the loudest.

_Stop that._

And neither one of them liked it. They were all friends and family, after all. Both of her voices should have been happy.

_No._

The disconnect was confusing them both. It made things harder for her to understand, and it only made the other voice shout so loudly she could barely hear herself over the upset.

_I'm not Frey._

Somewhere in that dark state of semi awareness she knew that maybe having two voices wasn't quite right, and maybe one of them was going to have to stop talking.

* * *

The long wait for the prince seemed to take ages, but Lest would have been willing to wait forever in exchange for what came after Arthur finally arrived.

Lest hadn't kept track of the time, but he hadn't seen anyone walking through the firefly-lit town for a while. Either the festivities were taking place somewhere specific, or they had already ended. It was a pointless thing to think about, but it kept Lest's mind off of the things he didn't care to recall, and it helped ease the anxiety that stuck every time he remembered exactly why he was waiting for Arthur.

They hardly exchanged a word as Arthur quietly approached Lest—the only sound giving the prince's arrival away being the heels of his shoes clicking against the stone pavement. They looked at each other briefly —Lest taking note of the ornate staff Arthur clung to with both hands—reaching a mutual understanding without words, and left the town behind.

The late night summer sounds of crickets and frogs and the trickle of the waterway were all drowned out by the pounding of Lest's heart screaming in his ears. What felt like every other second, his gaze flicked to Arthur—whose eyes were hidden beneath glass reflecting moonlight. Lest couldn't stop thinking about the incident from earlier. Whatever feelings had convinced him to latch on to Arthur were still nagging at him. _Don't let him go._ He's going to kill me. _No, he won't._ Yes he will. _We know him better than that._ No, we don't.

We…

Lest's heart dropped and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Arthur…"

The prince carried on for a few more steps, apparently not noticing that his companion had stopped. Even when he turned to look behind him, Lest still couldn't see his eyes. "Yes?"

Just what exactly had he been planning on asking the prince…?

_Well…_

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah…Er, sorry."

Lest looked up at the night sky and the ever-foreboding top of the tower one final time—briefly giving thought to whatever gods had decided creating him as a the strange hybrid-memory creature of heroism Selphia seemed to so desperately want.

What the hell could they have been thinking?

_You'll find out soon._

Lest wanted nothing more than for that to be true.

* * *

The dank air nearly choked them both as they took their first steps inside of the tower, but Arthur wasted no time in grabbing Lest's attention before his mind could wonder off again. "Where did you find Frey's ring?"

Where _had_ he found it? Lest known only a few seconds ago. He'd known until Arthur had _asked_ , damn it.

_You're overreacting._

Yeah…

The more he thought about it, the more rational he became. No. He _hadn't_ really known where he'd found it. He hardly remembered how he'd even gotten to the room he'd found the ring in.

Lest shook his head. "I don't remember how I got there, but I'd recognize the room if I saw it."

If Arthur was displeased with the response, Lest couldn't tell as the prince gestured forward. "Lead the way."

And so began another walk where neither man said anything to each other—specifically just to drive Lest insane via sheer awkwardness.

Or so the Earthmate was starting to feel.

It was almost like he was walking with his schoolyard crush, and, after spending so long attempting to catch his attention in a positive manner, Lest had absolutely nothing to say that didn't make him feel like he'd die saying it.

It was…something sort of like that—an entirely foreign feeling he couldn't place while still feeling unpleasantly familiar. He was getting really sick of that.

The extremely straightforward and cautiously slow venture wasn't making things any better.

"This seems odd."

Arthur's quiet voice in such a quiet place was loud enough to nearly scare Lest straight out of his boots.

"What is?"

"There aren't any gates. You and Leon did fight a rather large monster, didn't you?"

Too focused on his pathetic panic, Lest hadn't taken note of the lack of peril until Arthur had mentioned it. Things respawned. They always did. And he and Leon hadn't really had the chance to check and see if they'd actually managed to kill whatever it was that attacked and nearly killed Lest…

"Yeah, we did. That is strange. Maybe they vanished permanently? Although I don't remember being taught anything like that."

"It happens, but it's rare. The only time I know of personally is when Frey—"

The prince stopped himself midsentence with a short sigh.

Frey.

Again.

"It's alright." Lest said. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Arthur continued anyway. "There used to be a large gate blocking the entrance just outside this tower. Frey destroyed it and…" he closed his eyes and smiled before continuing. "Well, that's all there is to it, really."

_That's wrong._

"That's it?"

"Yes. For the most part."

_No._

"Arthur—"

"—What is that?"

Arthur wasn't even looking at him. Lest blinked—confused at the prince's sudden change of topic. Lest admit he could hardly claim to know Arthur very well, but he still felt the odd behavior was out of character for the usually disgustingly polite nobleman.

Of course, considering the circumstances, maybe it was understandable.

The thing in question that was apparently so interesting that it stole Arthur's personality didn't strike Lest as anything special at first.

"It looks like a light."

"On the floor?"

Apparently, since the prince's curiosity wouldn't be sated until he'd gotten Lest to completely forget they'd been previously discussing something else to look at something stupid, the pair entered slowly—weapons drawn and defensives up. As far as either one of them could see, the room was completely empty and free of anything save for the strange source of light in the center of the room.

Lest thought of doing otherwise, but he lowered his guard down as he approached the light, muttering to himself so quietly that Arthur would have missed it had they been anywhere else, "This wasn't here before..."

"Are you sure?"

"What do you think it is?" he almost couldn't stop himself from reaching out to touch it, but Arthur quickly reached out to stop him. Their senses of curiosity suddenly seemed swapped.

The prince still looked on edge, Lest's sudden apparent sense of security and constant airiness not having any effect on his own state of mind. "Lest, I don't think that—"

"—it looks familiar."

Arthur let Lest's wrist slip from his hand. "What? But you said it wasn't here before."

"Yeah, but…"

But what?

He looked away from the prince and crystal clear images suddenly filled his head.

Lest snapped, the sound echoing painfully loud throughout the room. "I remember now!"

The thing that had attacked him had been something like a dragon, occasionally jumping in and out of sight. It had been able to turn invisible, and that's why Lest had missed it when he was with Leon.

Wait. Leon. Leon had been there with him, right? But he wasn't remembering that now. The only things Lest saw were himself and the dragon, both fighting with everything they had with intent to kill one another.

And Lest had won, right? That's why that strange light was here now. Lest had slain the dragon, and the dragon had left this light behind.

It felt both completely right and completely wrong at the same time.

Lest said it anyway. "I killed the monster that was here."

"But… you and Leon." Arthur's face warped with confusion Lest only half grasped. "Lest, are you feeling alright?"

"What do you mean?"

The Earthmate hadn't stopped what he was doing despite the sudden questioning—still reaching out for the stupidly familiar light. Even as he simultaneously remembered slaying the dragon and escaping with Leon before it could attack again, he extended his arm out to grab it.

Arthur's hand bolted out to stop Lest, but he only succeeded in blinding himself along with the Earthmate as the light reacted to the touch and shone bright enough to wipe the scene away.

* * *

What that horribly familiar and stupidly distracting light managed to do provoked two entirely different reactions. One from Arthur, who, despite having been an experienced traveler and magic user, dropped his notebook on the ground and stood so completely in shock that he didn't seem to notice that he'd done so. And then the second came from Lest's confused head, reminding him that he'd been in these surroundings before while also insisting otherwise.

Despite the different mental states, both men stood in complete silence—not even speaking to each other when they _did_ open their mouths to speak.

"It's a beach."

"Where is this?"

"Is this still Rune Prana?"

"My lord…"

And then…

"What is that?"

The repeat question snapped some focus back into the pair.

"What is what?" Lest asked, looking around slowly in hopes of seeing what the prince was referring to.

Arthur bent over to pick up his notebook and then pointed off into the distance. Between the men and the water were a few island patches of sand and varying depths of water, and—on what seemed to be the exact far opposite side of the sandy maze—something was moving.

Lest squinted in a poor attempt to get a better look of the thing. "A monster, maybe?"

Arthur flushed. "It would have to be huge for us to be able to see it from here."

That wasn't a thought that had occurred to the Earthmate, and it weighed heavily on his thoughts as he carried on. "Maybe we should go over there?"

"I don't see much else here…"

"If we kill it, it might open up another portal? Like that last monster."

"About that...Leon never mentioned—"

Arthur was going to wind up losing his book to Rune Prana if he continued dropping it every time something alarmed him. Mid sentence, he'd been cut off by a horrendous screeching, presumably from the monster in the distance.

"Guess it saw us too." Lest mumbled.

"From this far?" Arthur asked. "I can't imagine…"

Lest shrugged. He didn't have an explanation for that. "Then I guess it's just making noise."

Arthur made a sound Lest assumed to be agreement, and then tucked his fallen book into an inner pocket on his coat, instead opting to focus his hands on gripping his weapon tighter.

"Why were you still holding that book if you had pockets?" Lest asked. He decided not to mention how stupid he felt that was in the first place.

"Habit."

Lest also opted not to mention how Arthur's explanations and excuses for things were progressively getting more horrible as the night went on.

* * *

'Let's look at the screeching thing 'seemed like an innocent—albeit completely stupid and borderline suicidal—enough idea before Arthur and Lest had started executing it.

Walking straight across to it was impossible, as Lest quickly learned by attempting to cross what was actually extremely deep water. Disgruntled and now equip with squelching boots and sopping wet pants from the knees down, he instead followed Arthur's lead in taking the _long_ way to their destination.

Unfortunately, that long way just so happened to be filled with things like turtles rolling out of gates neither man had been able to see from a distance. Luckily, monstrous or not, turtles were pretty easy to murder and Lest had no problem taking care of the problem.

Arthur, on the other hand, was much less helpful to the situation. Magically gifted or not, Lest couldn't imagine that the prince had ever seen a day of actual combat in his life—or at least not anything as haphazard as giant and weirdly aggressive turtles. It seemed like Arthur had enough skills to successfully continue living, but his attacks seemed to be doing absolutely nothing.

Needless to say, Lest hardly felt comfortable leading the team.

_Be patient with him._

But he's terrible.

_You're terrible!_

But it's true.

_Be nice._

He's going to get us killed.

And then came the screeching thing.

For what felt like the millionth time, Arthur asked, "What _is_ that?"

"I…um…"

It was a question Lest honestly wished he could have answered but didn't have the time for. It was something like an octopus. An octopus with an iron gilded shell and full capacity to go around stabbing damn well anything it pleased.

What Lest hadn't been expecting was for the octopus-monster-thing to also be equip with deadly throwing items—rendering what Lest and Arthur had deemed a moderately safe observing distance completely unsafe.

"Move!"

Arthur was more than likely going to take that advice, but Lest violently shoved the prince out of harm's way via his own hands anyway. The action seemed to catch Arthur completely off guard—so much so that he cast a spell in the completely wrong direction and wound up sending Lest flying further then he'd planned for when he'd jumped out of the way of the deadly projectile. Choking on sand and the sting of salt in his eyes, Lest scrambled back on feet and prepared himself for the fight he'd been hoping to have more time to prepare for.

He couldn't see Arthur, but Lest's eyes remained locked on the fast approaching target. The _alarmingly_ fast approaching target.

The beast closed the distance between them too quickly for Lest to come up with a plan more coherent then his previous one, and he jumped out of the way—keeping his footing without the extra aid of a misguided magic attack.

Unfortunately for Lest, he didn't quite get far enough, and took the fast end of a tentacle like a whip to the face—splitting his skin open too quickly to really feel happening but deep enough to bleed and sting. Lest's hand flew up to his cheek on reflex, but all he managed to do was get literal salt into his wound along with a healthy dose of sand. Lest winced, unfocused for just long enough to take another fast whipping—this time to the hand and arm he'd just raised.

Completely ready to cut the tentacles right off of the monster, Lest moved to attack—

—and Arthur cast his very first semi useful spell of the day.

At best, it only seemed to nick the monster and splatter foreign blood on Lest's face.

The thing whirled around and Lest's blade struck the back of the beast—bouncing back at him so hard he nearly lost the grip of his sword. The sword sang so sharply Lest's ears nearly ached as much as his wrist.

Very much unaffected, the monster turned its attention to the Earthmate and attacked again. Frantic, Lest tried to spin on his heel, only for his foot to get caught up in the sand and nearly take him down. Still deafened by the painful sound of failure, Lest only heard the voice and not the words as Arthur cast some sort of fire spell in retaliation.

The spell turned out to be even more useless than Lest's attack—with the added bonus of infuriating the giant beast. The thing immediately let out an irritated screech and again shifted focus from Earthmate to royalty. Lest uttered a panicked swear under his breath as he saw pure fear completely overtake the prince. His eyes widened and his staff slowly slipped from his grip.

Arthur's attempt to ignite the monster had only left the prince himself frozen in place, and it didn't seem like there was anything either of the men could do fast enough.

_Get up._

Lest grimaced.

_Do something._

Some hero he was turning out to be. Heroes probably didn't let princes die.

_Hero._

Just because everyone thought it was, that didn't make it true…

_Get up._

Just because he seemed to be so damn similar to Frey, that didn't mean he was…

The blood he tasted in his mouth dribbled into the sand and ripped him back to focus only for a moment. He looked back up at the creature—towering painfully high above him—and couldn't help but feel utterly useless.

How Frey had apparently done this before him was a complete mystery.

And then, as the copper tang in his mouth settled and faded out of importance, he saw something that sparked his adrenaline up higher than it had been at the start of the fight.

The look of horror on Arthur's face was that of a man who knew he was completely outclassed by the thing hoping to kill him.

_Get up get up get up get up_

I can't go fast enough.

_Lest._

But.

_…_

Maybe I can do this.

Putting all of his pain and misgivings aside just long enough to raise his sword and scream like an idiot, Lest stood up and lunged forward—the monster and Arthur both snapping their gazes in his Lest's direction. It was enough to get Arthur to pick his own weapon back up and move out of the way to cast a much welcome healing spell on Lest, but the monster still seemed heavily focused on the weaker target —eyes on Lest but moving towards the prince.

But Lest wasn't about to let anything else go in favor the beast.

He couldn't. Something in him was screaming too loudly.

His other hand flew up to the handle of his sword, and he drove it in with as much force as he could, doing his best to ignore blows aimed at him and the stench of blood and ocean decay.

If Lest could make it through this, then maybe…

Another horrible screeching erupted from the creature, and it fell dead only seconds later. Already knowing what to expect, Lest turned away as what was once a monster became light and vanished into the sky. Without saying anything, he offered Arthur a hand that was quickly accepted and pulling the prince back up to his feet.

It was probably an appropriate time to ask if the prince was feeling alright, but Lest figured he already knew the answer and couldn't manage to ask the question.

"Thank you." Arthur said—surprisingly unshaken as far as Lest could tell.

"You're…ah…"

"I'm alright, don't worry. I'm just glad you got up in time. I wasn't sure if you…"

Apparently not intending to pick his sentence up where he trailed off, Arthur remained silent. Although the ending to the prince's mutterings seemed obvious enough that Lest was glad it was left unsaid.

Lest decided to change to topic as they both composed themselves and carried on. "How do you think a monster like that got here? It kind of reminds of the one Leon and I fought, and…that one didn't come back even though I don't think we killed it. I guess we could have, but… Frey would have defeated these, right?"

"I'm not sure." Arthur replied. "If Frey managed to pass them and free Ventuswill, maybe something put them back?"

"But…why?"

Arthur shrugged. "Maybe this "something" felt that those monsters belong here."

"So something from Leon Karnak is putting things back where it thinks they belong?"

"I think…maybe you should ignore me." Arthur offered with a quiet laugh. "I'm just rambling. I'm a little more shaken up about fighting that monster than I thought. Regrettably…"

Lest nodded, but he couldn't help but feel there was a bit of truth to the so called ramblings.

Arthur laughed again, the sadness behind it practically jabbing Lest in the eye. "Frey was remarkably stronger than I am. At this point even Luna is..."

_Was._

The bright determination that sparked behind Arthur's glasses was clear to Lest even before Arthur continued. "I don't ever want her coming here, Lest. I can't…"

Lest nodded. "I understand."

And for once, Lest actually felt that he might.

Never mind that Lest wasn't actually a hero or that Arthur was a prince in mourning in a land far from comfort—as long as they both had the courage and the will to fight, maybe, _maybe_ they'd be okay.

The thought simultaneously felt like the stupidest and most inspiring thing Lest had ever come up with.

Maybe he wasn't a real hero, and maybe he was. One thing, having been pounded into his head the second he'd remembered existing, was for sure, and that was that he was at least a hero in everyone's delusions. And one of those completely deluded people was Luna, whose father and most definitely only surviving parent was Lest's current companion. If by some horrible twist of fate Lest survived and Arthur died, Lest didn't think he'd ever be able to live with that kind of guilt constantly haunting him.

Arthur had someone to let go of and another to return to, and Lest had to make sure both of those things happened.

_Hero._

If it was a title that Lest ever actually earned, he wondered if he'd someday figure out just how in the hell Frey managed to carry the weight of the title. As he looked at the prince and thought of Luna, he felt like the answer was perhaps a little simpler than he'd been making it out to be.


	12. Chapter 12

_Hello, again._

* * *

Time felt like it had frozen— _how many years had passed?_

* * *

_How long...  
_

* * *

It had only been a few hours.

Things carried on much the same as they had been. They walked—more like wandered—until they found somewhere else to go. The temple. The beach. The forest. The temple. Caves full of liquid fire. _The temple._ Each and every Lest and Arthur found themselves guarded off by a new beast that wanted them dead.

Rune Prana seemed to contain remnants of the entire world, and the world was not a fan of being invaded. The monsters they fought felt like spirits. The only living things besides the nobleman and the "hero" in the infinity of the temple, but it hardly felt like the monsters were living at all. If they had lived at one point, it couldn't have been in Rune Prana. They way they were now, it felt like they existed solely inside of the temple—to keep people _out_.

It didn't feel like a place meant for the living. Things that went to Rune Prana went there to die, things that wound up at Rune Prana were there to be reborn, and everything that lived there was dead.

Lest decided then, looking upon what was left of her corpse, all three of those things must have happened to Frey.

_That's me._

No.

_It is._

It's _not._

_Frey._

"Lest..." Arthur called his name, but he wasn't listening.

He hadn't been listening since the prince had spotted the gloved hand of his wife sticking out from beneath a pile of mossy rubble. Arthur had been crying the entire time—the kind of loud shrieking that came along with finality. Whether they wanted to find it or not, they'd both known what they were going to find here

Had it been hours or had it been _years_? _Gods,_ it was uncomfortable. He hardly knew Arthur—and he didn't know Frey at all—but the scene playing out before him struck him a way he couldn't explain. He wanted to cry, for the sake of crying? He wanted to throw up— _gods, gods, gods,_ it was hard to watch. He wanted to hug Arthur—he'd be fine. _It was fine._ He wanted to die, they'd come all this way for _that._ He wanted to live— _he wasn't_ _dead._ He wanted to smile. _It's over._ He wanted to scream. _I'm sorry._

All of those things swirled around in his chest at once. It was hard to breath—it was hard to focus. What was he supposed to do? What was he _looking at?_

_That's me._

"No, it's _not!"_

But it was, wasn't it?

Arthur looked back at him—just staring with tear swollen eyes. He hadn't heard it, of course he didn't know what to say. The voice in Lest's head went silent, not knowing how to respond to being looked at like _that._ Arthur looked like a dignified disaster—puffy eyed and sitting on the very edge of screaming again. It probably wouldn't take much to push him _._

Nevertheless, Lest pushed, "You're taking the news awfully well."

Arthur looked down— _thankfully_ —a grim smile stuck on his face. It almost sounded like he was laughing, but Lest knew that wasn't right.

"It's not really news, so much as confirmation." the prince chewed on his lip. "It just feels so strange. It's _over_ , isn't it? But something doesn't feel right."

_Tell him._

Lest's eyes flicked back over to what little remained of Frey. It almost felt like a joke. It looked to perfect—too beautifully framed to be an unexpected grave. Light was filtering in from ancient cracks in the wall, bringing along with it just enough fresh air to rouse the dust from it's stillness. Things were growing here—moss and flowers atop fallen rubble. Some of it was dead, some of it was finding new life—torn off the wall and high stone nooks and thrown on top of her body.

Rune Prana had buried Frey itself, offering parts of itself up despite being the very thing that killed her.

_Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me_

His mind was shouting at him. He might as well have been looking in a mirror—seeing his own future. The future of a hero the town had treasured so dearly—the hero that the same town wanted him to become.

"I know what it is." Although he didn't want to.

It wasn't his future, it was his past. Frey's corpse lived in the ruins, but her spirit lived within Lest. He was looking at a stranger as he looked upon himself. He was looking at his husband as he looked upon an acquaintance. He'd met his daughter for the first time and hadn't even known her name.

Lest wasn't anybody. He was _Frey._

At the same time he knew he was, he didn't feel like of anything.

"I remember now."

The prince's eyes widened. It wasn't what he'd been expecting to hear. "Lest, that's wonderful."

" _No._ " Lest choked. "It's not."

"I don't understand."

 _Of course not._ Lest pointed to himself—crushed beneath the weight of the tower. "It's me."

"Lest, that's..."

"It's _right._ You don't get it, Arthur!" was he screaming now? _Gods,_ it just didn't end. "There is no _Lest._ I'm just...I'm just _her!_ Seeing her there like that, I remember everything. It's _me._ I always was. She always was."

"No." The Prince shook his head slowly, but firmly enough for the words to impact Lest. He had no idea what he was saying. "You're not Frey."

"I _am._ Her memories are stuck in my head—I can't remember anything else. Everything she's ever done. Anything _we've_ ever done. I remember all of it. I remember dying here, I remember hearing voices in this tower. _"_

Lest froze, his face contorting into a shape moulded by rage. "This damn tower…"

"You misunderstand me." Arthur was staring again, his smile having gone from grim to something the other blonde couldn't read. "You may...have her memories, but they are still hers. For whatever reason, you say have them, and... I suppose I'm glad, in a way. Her memories live on through you, and memories of her will live on through Luna and I."

Lest shook his head violently, the silence almost ringing louder than the constant voices ever had. "Do you _always_ take catastrophic news this well? First _that,_ and now _this._ "

"I suppose I don't know what else to say." Arthur stood, letting go of his wife's hand. Lest hadn't noticed he'd been holding it so tightly. "But it feels like you've given something back to me."

"But I still don't understand! Why is did this happen? Who the hell am I?"

"You're Lest."

"Born from _Frey_. I exist because she's _dead_."

"Lest..." Arthur began, pausing as if to give the Earthmate a moment to truly absorb his own name. "Wasn't that the only thing you remembered at first?"

"What?"

"Your name—Lest."

"Yes. But what's that got to do with anything?"

Arthur smiled weakly. "It's original—your own memory."

Lest groaned in confused frustration, and Arthur continued. "You came up with it yourself—at least as far as I know. You never were Frey, and you're never going to be. From the moment you came to be, you had already decided your own fate. You're Lest, and Lest just so happens to have the memories of someone else."

"Lest's not really much of a person if that's all he has."

"Then become him. Make your own memories—ones that belong to you."

Lest's face twisted slightly in thought. Arthur was still staring straight at him. Although Lest really felt like it would kill him, the smile of Arthur's face made his heart leap and his mind slow enough to grasp at the prince's words, which, as Lest thought upon them with a clear head, were beginning to finally calm him.

The first thing was going to be a problem.

Flustered, Lest quickly looked away again and cursed Frey in his head. He could imagine her laughter so clearly he could have sworn he heard it.

"I...think I get what you're saying. She may be me, but I'm not her...I guess."

"That's another way you could put it, I suppose. "

"And in order to become Lest, I should start making my own memories."

"Well, I already think you _are_ Lest, but I do think it that would be good for, yes."

"But how will I know which ones are mine and which ones are hers...?"

And the conversation died. The prince was at a loss for words that Lest grew increasingly desperate for.

The longer Lest stared at Arthur, the more obvious the answer became to him. "I can't stay in Selphia."

The sudden break in silence seemed to catch Arthur off guard. "And why is that?"

"All of Frey's memories are here. When I look at things and people I've never seen, sometimes I remember how Frey felt about them, and... ah..."

As Lest's words clicked together, Arthur looked just as flustered as Lest. "I see. Oh… Oh dear..."

Quickly, Lest added, "And, well, if I stay, I might never be able to tell the difference between my own memories and hers, so..."

_Gods._

"Y-yes, of course!"

They glanced elsewhere at exactly the same time.

"Still... even after everything, I'm sorry to see you go." Arthur continued.

Lest cracked a smile. "Why? We barely know each other, and all I've done is stress you out and push you down."

"Yes, but... Ah, hmm...You…"

"Do you really believe anything I'm telling you right now?" Lest interrupted. "I feel insane."

"Stranger things have happened in Selphia."

"I can prove it. I can tell you everything."

"I believe you."

"You're too nice."

"Well, I wanted to say something, but I'm not sure if it's really appropriate, considering the circumstances."

Lest shrugged. "Say what you want. I'll be gone soon anyway."

"Your heart's in the right place." Arthur's face fell and eyes glistened as he continued. "And Luna is so fond of you. I don't know how I'm going to explain to her that both her newfound idol and mother won't be coming home…"

The prince's words seemed to sting him more coming out of his mouth than they'd been trapped in his head. The sparkle in his eyes turned to tears, and his book flew open from his pocket and back up to his face.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry."

Although he knew Arthur couldn't see him, Lest shook his head and placed a careful but awkward hand on the prince's shoulder—seemingly catching him off guard as he nearly dropped the book on the ground.

"She bought me this, you know?"

Lest wasn't sure how to respond, but Arthur kept talking—his short-lived composure completely gone.

"Before we were married."

"Arthur…"

"I miss her."

Lest didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. All three of them already knew that. Everyone knew that.

Lest kept quiet. Frey did not. Although Lest was the only one who could hear her, her words felt like they resonated further beyond his head.

_Thank you._

For what?

_Everything._

Lest wasn't sure he'd done anything to deserve thanks for _everything._

_He knows._

I know.

_They'll know. They needed to know._

…

_I love everyone so much._

The wind whistled through the cracks in the wall, rousing the dust and tousling Lest's hair. The wind carried Frey's voice away with it, drying Arthur's tears. There were other places to be, new memories to make. People to say goodbye to, and new faces to see. They'd spent enough time in wallowing around the land of the living dead. Arthur was alive. Lest was _alive._ They'd come all this way for _this…_

Everyone already knew that. It was the one thing they always did.

For the first time in what felt like ages, the living could continue their lives.

**Author's Note:**

> Somewhere along the line, I lost the drive for fanfic and moved on to original works. This being unfinished was always nagging me in the back of my skull, and a friend of mine finally talked me into finishing it. I hope somewhere, somebody out there enjoys this, aha.
> 
> This is an entirely unedited repost of it as it was originally written (save for the removal of my author's notes) in mid 2014. The final chapter was finished late 2018.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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